School Start and Dismissal Times (Changes)

[tgbwc]

Originally Posted by JEB77

FCPS has now released the results of an online survey from last month regarding the proposed changes in the schedule. There was substantial opposition from students, parents and teachers. Stick a fork in it.

I think I took the survey 5 or 6 times.

Do you have a link for the results? I don't see it on the FCPS site.

[Yankeesfan]

JEB77, I think you analysis is right, neither the staff nor the School Board really wanted to do this, but the group called SLEEP has been advocating for this so strongly that they decided to put it out there, correctly expecting that this would bring out the opposition.

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by Yankeesfan

Christine, I know it's challenging to put together a schedule, but keep in mind that accommodating your schedule might mean inconveniencing someone else. Opening SACC or childcare at 5:30 am means someone has to get up at 4:00 or 4:30 am and leave home at 5:00 am, possibly leaving their own children, in order to take care of your children. That's not feasible for most people. Even if they tried it would be hard to staff. And I don't know how much the demand would be because those are unusual hours.

Many people choose teaching because they want to be home in the afternoon with their children. Even if they have to make lesson plans or grade papers or answer emails from parents, they'd rather do it from home while supervising their own children than at work while their children are home alone or in afterschool care. So when I hear that parents want to have teacher conferences in the evenings so they don't have to disrupt their own work schedules, I wonder if they're realizing that they're disrupting the teachers' schedules.

As for the camps, making them all-day would double the price and put them out of range for people who would like to send their kids just for enrichment and not as daycare. FCPA (Parktakes) has a lot of camps that run for most of the day and include before and afterschool care for an extra cost for those who need it and are willing to pay,but don't force those who don't want or need their children to be gone for 10 hours a day to have to pay the full cost.

I understand very well what you're saying and agree with most of it. I'm more or less directing my comments to Skapov who was venting about how changes in the schedule would impact her as a working parent. I just wanted to point out that working parents are never "calculated" into any decisions made.

As for the summer camps, I am a little miffed about them. My son is 14 years old. Way too old for traditional day care and way too young to be sitting at home all day. It is a tough time for us. Last year, I did sign him up for two weeks of camp through Prince William County. Due to our schedules, we could only pick one of the camps that was in conjunction with before and after care. We did those camps even though they weren't in the interests that he has (kayaking). This summer there are several enrichment camps (cartooning, sketching, cooking, robotics) that he would love to do but none of those camps work with the park authority's before and after care program. I'm sure it's due to funding issues, bus service, etc., but there are a whole legion of kids who can't take advantage of this and are sitting in the house. We'd all be willing to pay and it wouldn't impact those that wanted the 4 hour camp only. Oh well.

As for my working hours being unusual--not in the defense world they aren't. You wouldn't believe the number of people walking in and sitting down at their desks at 6:00 - 6:30 a.m. at the Navy Yard. I think there are many, many parents having to struggle with day care and hours that don't fit what was established decades ago. I have noticed that daycares in my area have at least shifted back 30 minutes than from when I was using them. It used to be hard to find one that opened at 6:00 a.m., but now most of them are.

The only one I don't see changing is what the public schools offer.

[JD984]

tgbwc - here is a link to the results of the survey:

http://www.fcps.edu/news/start/onlin...uleresults.pdf

[Denton56]

Of course people who object the most are the ones who will complete the survey. That's exactly what the administration hopes for when they put such a survey online. That way they can claim community support for whatever it is that they want to do. The administration came up with a bell schedule that was guaranteed to be rejected by the community. Even SLEEP doesn't support this crazy schedule, it's NOT what they wanted. SLEEP: Start Later for Excellence in Education Proposal for Fairfax County VA Schools


Stick a fork in it, kids in FCPS will continue to be a bus stops before 6am, and be running the streets by 2pm. Somehow the rest of the country, places that spend MUCH less per pupil, can figure this out, but FCPS cannot. It's just too difficult for those 14,000 administrators.

[Denton56]

Can anyone explain why our school children are on the same schedule that children were on over 100 years ago? It was set up so that children could be home in the afternoon, and the summer, to help work on the farms. In 1900, 95% of Americans lived on farms. Now, fewer than 5% live on farms. Fairfax county has NO farms, not a one. So why are our children still attending schools on the same, agrarian, schedule? Can someone explain that? Other than the NEA and FEA?

[Yankeesfan]

Because it would cost a fortune to increase school hours and weeks, in a county that is dealing with a $650,000 budget shortfall this year (and as you probably know over half of the county budget goes to the schools), with worse probably on the way for next year. Plus not everyone wants their kids in school fulltime year-round. Sports, extracurriculars, family vacations, time at the pool, camp, summer jobs and internships are important too. (Although I know we could debate endlessly about the right balance of those things vs. time in school.)

You're absolutely right that we could do without many of those administrators. Especially those who, as you and JEB77 pointed out, went through this whole proposal and comment process just so they could claim to have done something that they knew would be rejected, in the hope that the issue will now go away. Which it won't.

[Skapov]

Originally Posted by Denton56

Can anyone explain why our school children are on the same schedule that children were on over 100 years ago? It was set up so that children could be home in the afternoon, and the summer, to help work on the farms. In 1900, 95% of Americans lived on farms. Now, fewer than 5% live on farms. Fairfax county has NO farms, not a one. So why are our children still attending schools on the same, agrarian, schedule? Can someone explain that? Other than the NEA and FEA?

I read that Barack Obama's Secretary of Education (Arne Duncan), is proposing a longer schoolyear, to bring America's schools into the modern era. Waking up at the crack of dawn, in order to be able to come home by the afternoon to help out on the family farm, is just wayyy out-of-date. I know it's hard to change patterns once they are set, but I really hope SOMETHING can be done!

[dkf747]

I liked the schedule we had when I was a kid. This was in Michigan. High school started at 8, Middle School at 8:30 and Elementary started at 9. In the afternoon, they finished at 2:30, 3 and 3:30. When my kids started school in this area, I was shocked how early they had to get up to make the bus. I'd love it if the schools here had a schedule like that.

[Yankeesfan]

It would be very nice but since the same set of buses have to do three runs, for most routes half an hour in between wouldn't be long enough.