Dear Incoming Chancellor: Start Schools After Labor Day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private schools and Virginia public schools have started after labor day for years and seem to be quite successful. MD is now moving the entire state to this model as well. Please don't start DC schools weeks before labor day. Let kids enjoy their summer and don't make them feel that their schools are the pits so they have to be "punished" by starting earlier.

Some ways this could be achieved:

- Consolidate the many professional development days to the two weeks prior to Labor day.
- Require teaching during the last two-three weeks of school (rather than watching movies while teachers dismantle their classrooms, etc.)
- Start school 15 - 30 minutes earlier (8:45 is very late for elementary school drop off)
- Hold parent-teacher conferences in the late afternoon/early evening rather than closing the school for a day (much easier for parents too)

I know many people like the move to year-round school, but many also like the "old school" way that we all grew up with. It gives kids time over the summer to have fun and be kids. Really, we all lived through that system and I'd say that it worked out fine for most (nothing works best for everyone).

Unless you work and have to pay for child care/camp for all those days... This is a very SAHM perspective.

Your aftercare doesn't cover them?

All of those random Monday/Fridays off is way more disruptive to my child care needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

All of those random Monday/Fridays off is way more disruptive to my child care needs.

At some schools the aftercare program and fee covers them, or for families who don't usually use aftercare there's a drop-in option to register for care on those days ahead of time.

[Anonymous]

Terrible idea. No way. Childcare is difficult enough as it is those last weeks in August. Our household honestly can't afford another week on top of that. And, while we're fairly comfortable, it's lower-income kids who lose the most over the summer.

[Anonymous]

What's your rationale for this OP? Because you remember your childhood summers wistfully? That's a reason to move against all educational research, further disadvantage low income kids and eliminate the efficacy of teacher training?

[Anonymous]

I prefer the earlier start. "Labor Day" is an arbitrary starting point that benefits the local tourism industry (subsidy?) over educational outcomes for our children.

[Anonymous]

I have no problem with the start state being i August. I just wish the kids has a fall break. Maybe they could extended the school year by a week.

[Anonymous]

No thanks. Summer is long enough.

[Anonymous]

OP: I agree with you 100%.

[Anonymous]

It's possible we remember our Summer's as "blissful" because our parents took off of work or we had a stay at home parent with us. But times have changed, and many MANY children in this city are being left behind by parents who work multiple jobs and are stressed. I vote for year round school with one week off here and there (camps for those younger than HS should be part of school and covered with tax dollars, HS kids could work at the school painting or something like that) - take the stress off of parents and have school be all encompassing.

[Anonymous]

Don't you mean you need them to help you bring in the harvest? Or else the whole farm family will starve on the prairie?
When I was a kid I would have agreed but now that I'm a working mom it's a burden for our family to pay for weeks and weeks of summer camp/coverage. We have to put it on our card and hope to pay it back before next summer rolls around. With spring break and Xmas we can really take maybe a max of three weeks vacation in summer. No Gramma camp or SAHP here.
One of my kids needs the extra school time to catch up. Her brain is certainly growing during summer, she took music lessons and swimming and is reading and learning a lot about the Chesapeake. But her math skills have slid back a lot.

[Anonymous]

So, I too hate the stupid wasted days at the end of the school year. But that's not actually a solution to the stated problem of squeezing in 180 days after labor day.

I say, start earlier, keep long breaks. I like the two weeks at christmas and a week at spring break.

[Anonymous]

I don't consider schools to be responsible for my childcare. That is not there purpose, and I don't care for my tax dollars to pay for everyone else's childcare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's your rationale for this OP? Because you remember your childhood summers wistfully? That's a reason to move against all educational research, further disadvantage low income kids and eliminate the efficacy of teacher training?

+1.
But, but...I want to spend two more weeks in MA or at the pool club. I'm in favor of starting earlier in Aug and it has nothing to do with childcare for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't consider schools to be responsible for my childcare. That is not there purpose, and I don't care for my tax dollars to pay for everyone else's childcare.

Eeek, their purpose is to teach things like the difference between there, their and they're. You seemed to have missed that lesson, too.

[Anonymous]

Consolidated professional development before the school starts. Start after Labor Day.