GREEK WEEK

The board gives out these wage numbers in March because teachers' contracts are renewed every year in May. Blackford said it’s important for teachers to know what they are getting paid, Nodaway-Holt currently has 24 teachers and 22 have renewed their contracts already.

Blackford wants to make NodawayHolt as attractive as possible because when future teachers do have interviews, he said they should be interviewing the school. Teachers are looking for an environment that works for them and gives them the best opportunities.

Nodaway-Holt is a training ground for others, he said it’s like a revolving door, it trains teachers for one to two years for experience and then they leave. Blackford said its tough that they have these teachers coming in and out, especially with no applicants out there.

“I think that’s the goal to attract more teachers, more young students into the teaching profession,” Blackford said.

Nodaway-Holt also moved to a fourday school week this school year. Black- ford said it’s not for every district, but it has helped this school district. Its daily schedule is 8 a.m. to 3:36 p.m, Tuesday through Friday. He said this schedule has given teachers more flexibility, instead of teachers going to the school on a personal day, Sunday to plan they come in on Mondays. Blackford has seen school discipline go down, he said the less time students are sitting in in-school detention the more time they are in the classroom learning. Blackford said it's hard to measure things right now, but he has seen a positive change in the environment of the staff and students. He cannot determine yet if it's caused by the four-day school week.