District Seeks Input on Added 20-Minutes to School Day
The district is conducting a survey on the mandated 20-minutes more to the school day. The survey is available at your school in a paper form as well as on-line. The link provides charts that show the different options.
All surveys need to be completed online or due back to the school by October 21.
All surveys need to be completed online or due back to the school by October 21.
Comments
Mom of 4
I am angry that they are asking my 6 year old to sit at a desk 20 minutes longer next year. I would like to point out that the extra 20 minutes was only put into the contract at the insistence of the Mr. Nyland. The teachers were against this, as it added unpaid hours to their contract. I believe Mr. Nyland and SPS can find a way to remove it if they wish.
Research is showing over and over that sitting still at a desk for long periods at a young age is actually counterproductive to learning.
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/06/how-finland-keeps-kids-focused/373544/
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/09/exercise-seems-to-be-beneficial-to-children/380844/?utm_source=nhfb
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/1/183
Please let them know you disagree with this!!!
-NW Parent
EdVoter
Why is there always some big change underway with SPS?
They knew this was coming, so why did they forge ahead with changing the bell times for this school year? Why not wait and make all needed changes in the same academic year? It's not like it was urgent that HS start 35 minutes later ASAP...come on.
If there could be a worse way to manage a district, I am not sure I can imagine it. Maybe hire some more suits at JSCEE to study the matter? Why not just get things right the first time, SPS?
Mom of 4 is completely right that a once-a-week early dismissal or late arrival is ridiculous.
Irene
It would be helpful if staff could show the Board and the families of the District another comparable Washington district or two, with similar demographics, which have implemented this measure and could provide us all with some information as to how those districts chose their "best" before/after school schedule and day of the week to implement this measure.
This is another significant school upheaval and the Seattle community needs more information.
EdVoter
HP
The elementary school day is 6 hours and 10 minutes long. Most people work 8 hour days. This leaves almost 2 hours every day where teachers could schedule planning and collaboration time with their teams. Even if they did that for the proposed 1 hour per week (and I'm assuming this is in addition to the monthly 2-hour early dismissals and full development days that are already utilized), it leaves time for personal planning, grading, and preparation. If instructional time needs to be added to the school year, why do we have to achieve this by adding 20 minutes to the day? Why do we need to take 4 weeks off during the school year? Or why can't the school year be extended into summer?
I find it excruciating that families have to continually take the brunt of these crazy schedule ideas and upend their work and childcare schedules not to mention some consistency for the kids.
-Confused working parent
I am so confused by the two-tier/three-tier thing. I thought I heard that SPS was going to go to two-tier busing next year???
-North-end Mom
Bham
- M-T-T-F: 8:00 am – 2:25 pm
- Wednesday: 8:00 am – 12:05 pm
I would be in favor of a schedule like that, but I dislike the early dismissal or late start of only ah hour. Make it mean something, and make it an amount of time a family can use.
- Bus schedules
- Childcare
- Sports & clubs
- Lesson planning - now HS periods are 50mins; I guess they will go to 53mins 4 days and 43mins 1 day, which means lesson plans, tests, classroom routines, etc. need to be made with this difference in mind.
- Everyone's brains who have to keep track of this
It sounds like people in other districts deal with this, but it would be more logical to add 8mins to every day, and have teachers take the collaboration hour one day per week out of time they would otherwise spend on lesson plans, grading, meetings, etc. Total hours would be the same under either approach. I'm all for treating teachers nicely but this seems like a disproportionate amount of hassle for students and families.
BT
This is only for the ego.
-Blech.
-SPSParent
HP
Northender