Longer days in FCPS?

[Anonymous]

Our school just changed the time on their website to start 10 minutes earlier with no change in ending time. I spoke with the principal and she said that, yes, school will be 10 minutes longer each day to comply with the 990 hour requirement. I thought they had nixed the idea of adding 10 minutes to the day in addition to full day Mondays, but I guess not. She said kids need to be in their seats at the new earlier time. There is definitely confusion out there on this that needs to be cleared up. Hopefully the principals will send out more detailed emails soon. When the school board voted on the full day Mondays it appeared that the 10 minute add-on was not mentioned, so a lot of people assumed it was no longer being considered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our school just changed the time on their website to start 10 minutes earlier with no change in ending time. I spoke with the principal and she said that, yes, school will be 10 minutes longer each day to comply with the 990 hour requirement. I thought they had nixed the idea of adding 10 minutes to the day in addition to full day Mondays, but I guess not. She said kids need to be in their seats at the new earlier time. There is definitely confusion out there on this that needs to be cleared up. Hopefully the principals will send out more detailed emails soon. When the school board voted on the full day Mondays it appeared that the 10 minute add-on was not mentioned, so a lot of people assumed it was no longer being considered.

My principal sent an email to employees earlier in the summer that said something similar, but then followed up with another retracting the first. I'll look to see if I still have them.

[Anonymous]

Also, just noticed that while one of my kid's school starts 10 minutes earlier (going 10 minutes longer), my other kid in AAP has the same starting and ending time. I took a quick look at times for other AAP centers and all of them are 6 hrs 40 min, but all the schools without AAP centers are going 6 hrs 50 min.

[Anonymous]

17:23 here.

My principal sent a follow-up email saying that students will be considered tardy after 8:20, not at 8:10 as was previously stated. Dismissal will be at 3:00.

That is the same bell schedule we had last year. No changes.

[Anonymous]

Just got an email now from our principal saying school will start 10 minutes earlier and students will be tardy after that time. No change to the ending time, so they're going 10 minutes longer. I'm confused because on the FAQs for full day Mondays on fcps.edu (updated 7/23) its says there will be no change to the school hours. If other principals are saying differently, who is right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just got an email now from our principal saying school will start 10 minutes earlier and students will be tardy after that time. No change to the ending time, so they're going 10 minutes longer. I'm confused because on the FAQs for full day Mondays on fcps.edu (updated 7/23) its says there will be no change to the school hours. If other principals are saying differently, who is right?

What school are you at? I can check the list of school start times.

--FCPS administrator

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just got an email now from our principal saying school will start 10 minutes earlier and students will be tardy after that time. No change to the ending time, so they're going 10 minutes longer. I'm confused because on the FAQs for full day Mondays on fcps.edu (updated 7/23) its says there will be no change to the school hours. If other principals are saying differently, who is right?

So, quote that and attach the link in an email to your principal.

I'm the one who said our principal retracted his first email in which he said students would be tardy 10 minutes earlier than last year. Today, I asked an Ap friend of ours and he said they are not changing their bell schedule.

No. This isn't being rushed at all.

[Anonymous]

I have kids at Ravensworth and Keene Mill - 1st saying 10 minutes longer & they must be in their seats at the earlier time, 2nd said 10 minute earlier start time earlier this summer but the website has been updated with the original bell schedule. Confused and just wanting to know when they have to be there!

[Anonymous]

When I look at ours online, the schedule is listed as 8:10-3:00. 8:10 is when the students were released to go back to the classrooms last year. The way I understand it is that this is still the case, they are just listing that as the start time instead of the tardy bell time, which will still be 8:20.

[Anonymous]

And ours says 8:05 - 2:55, but the principal says the tardy bell will ring at 8:05 - last year school was 8:15 - 2:55.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually it's not really going to be 20 minutes longer. The starting bell and ending bell will be the same. What's changed 5 which is when buses arrive. And the "official" end time will be 3:35 which is when buses have left. Again, the actual instruction time will still be exactly the same: 8:45-3:25.

I prefer fcps to be more honest. There isn't a lot of quality instruction while kids are packing up and leaving or arriving fir the day.

But the children still have to be supervised during that time. Who else is available to do that?

[Anonymous]

I don't want to deal with changes once the school year starts. Does anyone know who to contact to get the official word on whether kids are really supposed to be in their seats for these extra 10 minutes? Not the principals because it sounds like they might possibly be interpreting it differently. Superintendent? Assistant?

[Anonymous]

New bell schedule at Union Mill ES. 8:40-3:20.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, just noticed that while one of my kid's school starts 10 minutes earlier (going 10 minutes longer), my other kid in AAP has the same starting and ending time. I took a quick look at times for other AAP centers and all of them are 6 hrs 40 min, but all the schools without AAP centers are going 6 hrs 50 min.

Is this true? It seems to me that all schools should have the same length of day

[Anonymous]

New bell schedule at Wakefield Forest, 8:10 instead of 8:20, but they're not starting carpool any earlier, so how are they going to get all the kids in by 8:10? I think this is the principal's passive-aggressive way of fighting the change.