Backing weekly early dismissals

My gosh - why. Kids already get out at 2:25 - so one day a week at 1:25. I really don't get this school district. It is hard enough to keep track of a high schooler and now they get more free time. What about clubs and stuff like that - will this make one day less a week for them. As someone said it would be great if the schools encouraged the kids to be there more instead of less. I hate to say but I have doubts and how does that work with block - are all the periods shortened or just their last class?

At Del Burns’ Summit Meeting in February, all advisory groups (administrators, teachers, support staff, and parents) discussed this for hours. Both options were presented, and I have 18 pages worth of pros and cons that were hashed about. We were definitely not of one accord on these controversial proposals.

The main concerns for the plan now on the table dealt with the childcare nightmare for families (including an extra hour for “latchkey” children to be alone), and the opinion by many that high schools don’t really need this at all. They currently have flexibility to set up these team meeting times for teachers according to what works best for their particular situation. Several of us pointed out that it would be detrimental to put the 10 minutes at the beginning of school for children who already have to be there by 7:15.

All of the double talk by WCPSS and the School Board members has my head spinning!!!!

Louise

“This is going to be difficult for parents in the community to make this adjustment,” said school board member Lori Millberg.

She didn't blink an eye when they converted 22 schools.

Quit pretending to care, Ms. Millberg. 

I see they have already made the decision to mess around with the times. I am glad to see that they don't plan to start HS any earlier than 7:25. Earlier than that is barbaric! But when I went back and read the original article, it mentioned possibly shortening HS lunches from 35 minutes to 30. The lunch rooms can barely hold the freshmen and sophmore students as it is. Juniors and Seniors are strongly encouraged to go off campus to make room in the cafeteria. Shortening lunch is not a viable option! 35 minutes barely gives them time to get to their cars, leave the parking lot, order and get food, eat in their cars, park and get back to class. Less time would be dangerous.

The driving force comes from Professional Learning Communities. You can Google it, but Rick DuFour is one of the main people behind this idea. It is for teachers of same subject areas or grades to have common planning time to create common assessments. Then, those teachers can see what is working and what is not and what needs to be remediated. Their research has shown great leaps in achievement. Not all teachers buy into this but it is expected in WCPSS. It is the superintendent wanting this time. The teachers only want it provided since they are required to do it. Most schools are doing it now and teachers must use planning time, lunch, or personal time to do it.

Is it me or is this just downright confusing?

Add 10 minutes 5 days and subtract one hour 1 day. Unless my bits, skinnies and flats are worn out, that's a net loss of 10 minutes.

And where is the time for the 2 additional early release days coming from?

I just worked out flexible hours with my new boss at my new job so that I could be home when the kids got home from school and not disrupt their afternoons/activities/etc. This is going to throw a major kink in my new job. With this economy, I can't afford to have problems at work. Not to mention how this is going to disrupt our after school activities. I have a child with special needs and we go to therapy 2-3x/wk right after school. Has the BOE considered any of the impact this is going to have?

Keung...Will all of the schools have the same early release day (i.e. all schools would release early every Friday)? What will happen since I have one in MYR elementary, one in traditional middle, and one in traditional high school. I would hope that they would be released early on the same day --- preferably Friday so we could have family time together since we are all on different schedules.

Good Grief, more 1/2 days, more early release??I know of other school systems that added the time and then "banked" it so they could use it for weather days. How about using that time for this? Wait, that idea makes too much sense.I have to put the kids schedule into their own calendar just for school to keep up with everything. Wasn't there a study once that kids do best with consistency? Man o man, Wake County just gets sillier and sillier.

NC Parent--I'm also regretting that we didn't move to Chapel Hill when we first moved out here 10 years ago.

Amazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzing. The ignorant things these people do is just amazing!

How about let's have every track in every other MYR school start at a different time and every class have recess on the :08's of a different hour based on what grade they're in while teachers at every other traditional school on the second Thursday of every other week plug in a coffee pot for 9 minutes!

What is driving this change? Are teachers asking for more planning time? It is not being done for cost savings...why do the REALLY even spend time on this?