Anyone else object to starting Fairfax County middle schools earlier just to start hs later?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The survey results from parents were really unclear. They just asked what the benefits of each option were. I don't think they even looked at it.

Based on what? Everything was reviewed as I have a friend on the school board.

Face it, this change is going to happen. It needs to happen. It's for the health of kids. And no matter how much that screws people's schedules up, we're all going to have to adjust. Kind of like half-day Mondays and the new school schedule.

I'm more worried about my child, who will be 14 years old from October to June of his 8th grade year, getting up in time to take a bus and be in class at 7:20. How does this help 13 and 14 year olds?

[Anonymous]

Will co-located schools like South County /South County MS or Frost [1 minute from Woodson] share buses?

Anyone know the answer? I am going to kids at both Frost and Woodson next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Will co-located schools like South County /South County MS or Frost [1 minute from Woodson] share buses?

Anyone know the answer? I am going to kids at both Frost and Woodson next year.

What do they do now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Will co-located schools like South County /South County MS or Frost [1 minute from Woodson] share buses?

Anyone know the answer? I am going to kids at both Frost and Woodson next year.

What do they do now?

They take the same bus. Woodson starts at 7:20 and Frost at 7:25. It would be nice if they continued to share the bus and have similar start times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Have you tried to get a student into U.VA or William and Mary lately with no extracurricular activities, just grades and SAT scores?

+1000

Uh, yeah... not every student is even interested in UVa or W&M.

OK where is your student interested in going to college that doesn't look at extracurricular activities? Or are all your kids in elementary school or preschool?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 6th grader currently gets 10-11 hrs of sleep per night. She'd have to go to bed earlier than a toddler to get more than 9 hrs sleep. MS is hard enough. Why are we turning kids into sleepwalking zombies?

Why are we fairfax county parents insisting on more and more school and forcing the kids into a 9-5 work day?? They will be working soon enough. The fluff needs to be cut and these kids need to spend less hours in school. This is a big problem.

Fewer hours in school? You must a SAHM, or think US education is still world class or something.

You must be an idiot or have reading comprehension problems. Didn't you see where PP said the fluff needs to be cut?

Just after the bolded language, the poster said "and these kids need to spend less [sic] hours in school."
That is what I was responding to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can't they actually make the full changes that would truly address the issue? This half-a$$ compromise doesn't do enough for the high schoolers, makes middle school worse, and leaves so many elementary schoolers sitting around waiting somewhere instead of in the classroom, learning, during their most alert hour of the morning!

No, no, my elementary aged children are not "naturally" up earlier. I am not for earlier start times for elementary at all.

Whether your kid is a lark or an owl, don't you and your spouse have to be up at a fairly early time each school day for work anyway? What difference does it make if your child is in before care or school at 8 am?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can't they actually make the full changes that would truly address the issue? This half-a$$ compromise doesn't do enough for the high schoolers, makes middle school worse, and leaves so many elementary schoolers sitting around waiting somewhere instead of in the classroom, learning, during their most alert hour of the morning!

No, no, my elementary aged children are not "naturally" up earlier. I am not for earlier start times for elementary at all.

They would be naturally up earlier if you put them to bed at a decent hour.

You can think that if you want, but when my dd was born, she would stay up from 9 pm to 5 am every night. As she progressed to toddlerhood, she would routinely stay up until 2 am. I wish you could have been there to fix this problem for me. She has always had a hard time going to sleep. Sure I could put her in bed at 7 pm, but she won't go to sleep then even if I do it consistently for many nights.

So what time does her elementary school start, and how do you avoid having her be sleep deprived? Surely she's in class by 9 am at the latest?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that sports are great. I had one who did sports and one who did not. People might be surprised to know that there are a lot of activities other than sports that are going to be negatively impacted by the new times.

The new times shouldn't have a negative effect on extracurriculars. TJ runs from 8:30 to 3:50, with sports and many other extracurriculars starting about four and going till about six. Lots of very involved kids there, with long commutes to boot, and they manage to get it all done.

A lot of TJ students sleep 5 hours a night. No thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why can't schools move to a structure where students can choose to have early or later classes? That way the morning students can start @7am and the non-morning students at the same school can start @9 or something. A blanket early morning or late morning start won't work for all families, obviously.

Oh yeah that wouldn't play havoc with bus routes at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The survey results from parents were really unclear. They just asked what the benefits of each option were. I don't think they even looked at it.

Based on what? Everything was reviewed as I have a friend on the school board.

Face it, this change is going to happen. It needs to happen. It's for the health of kids. And no matter how much that screws people's schedules up, we're all going to have to adjust. Kind of like half-day Mondays and the new school schedule.

Do you mean like full day Mondays and the extra random days off like September 29 due to the new way to calculate time in school (hours versus days)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Have you tried to get a student into U.VA or William and Mary lately with no extracurricular activities, just grades and SAT scores?

+1000

Uh, yeah... not every student is even interested in UVa or W&M.

You're right, not sure that NOVA requires extracurrics to get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that sports are great. I had one who did sports and one who did not. People might be surprised to know that there are a lot of activities other than sports that are going to be negatively impacted by the new times.

The new times shouldn't have a negative effect on extracurriculars. TJ runs from 8:30 to 3:50, with sports and many other extracurriculars starting about four and going till about six. Lots of very involved kids there, with long commutes to boot, and they manage to get it all done.

A lot of TJ students sleep 5 hours a night. No thanks.

And a lot of kids at the neighborhood high schools sleep five hours a night now. My child at TJ sleeps from 10 or 11 till 7 every night and that is with two hours of a sport every day; the TJ schedule has been far better for my child then he earlier schedule for middle school at a secondary school. I think a lot of kids in the neighborhood schools could benefit from starting the school day later. I have seen the difference and the later start time is much better all around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm so tired of DCUMers always ignoring the fact that the middle schools inside the beltway start at 6th grade! My 11 year old 6th grader will not be ready to be home alone at 2-2:30!

This is not universal. Which Middle Schools? Longfellow and Cooper are both inside the beltway and both start in the 7th grade.

What determines whether a MS is 7 and 8th or 6th through 8th? Is it how overcrowded the elementary schools are?

FCPS doesn't have 6th graders in middle school. LCPS and PWCS do have 6th graders in middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm so tired of DCUMers always ignoring the fact that the middle schools inside the beltway start at 6th grade! My 11 year old 6th grader will not be ready to be home alone at 2-2:30!

This is not universal. Which Middle Schools? Longfellow and Cooper are both inside the beltway and both start in the 7th grade.

What determines whether a MS is 7 and 8th or 6th through 8th? Is it how overcrowded the elementary schools are?

FCPS doesn't have 6th graders in middle school. LCPS and PWCS do have 6th graders in middle school.

Some FCPS middle schools start at 6th grade.