New school start times survey

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If people have to pay for more child care, they may as well put their kids in private schools. I suspect that is why some of our enrollment is going down.

That doesn't make any sense - most private schools don't offer before and after care. If they do, it's far more expensive than SACC or the local TKD or gymanstics place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If people have to pay for more child care, they may as well put their kids in private schools. I suspect that is why some of our enrollment is going down.

That doesn't make any sense - most private schools don't offer before and after care. If they do, it's far more expensive than SACC or the local TKD or gymanstics place.

The point is they won’t need before care if they do private school because they would have more reasonable start times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If people have to pay for more child care, they may as well put their kids in private schools. I suspect that is why some of our enrollment is going down.

That doesn't make any sense - most private schools don't offer before and after care. If they do, it's far more expensive than SACC or the local TKD or gymanstics place.

The point is they won’t need before care if they do private school because they would have more reasonable start times.

This.

I was the PP that suggested they may as well put kids in private school. Crazy how some people cannot put two and two together.

And, to the second PP, do you really want your kids going to gymnastics before school?

As a former first grade teacher, the kids really fade at the end of the day. Now, imagine (if you are able to imagine) that your kids start the day at 7 with gymnastics before they come to school at 9:50. What do you think the teacher is going to see from your child at 2 p.m.?

[Anonymous]

In just about every public school system around the country elementary schools start before 8 am, usually by 7:30, and then middle schools and then high schools.

I'm not sure why this is so hard. And yes ES schools get out earlier, but when you choose to have children and put them in public schools, which are free, you have to figure out how to take provide child care for them.

After a certain point ES kids are perfectly capable of being at home by themselves for a few hours after school. By 5th grade most kids drop out of SACC because they are capable of being at home by themselves for a few hours.

Eliminate all of the random days off, shorten the school year, summer camps are easy to figure out.

If we must have one day a week off because of the need to observe every religious holiday in existence then put your kids in day camps.

Or lobby hard to put an end to the ridiculousness that is one day a week off, usually in the middle of the week, every week for one random religious holiday after another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In just about every public school system around the country elementary schools start before 8 am, usually by 7:30, and then middle schools and then high schools.

I'm not sure why this is so hard. And yes ES schools get out earlier, but when you choose to have children and put them in public schools, which are free, you have to figure out how to take provide child care for them.

After a certain point ES kids are perfectly capable of being at home by themselves for a few hours after school. By 5th grade most kids drop out of SACC because they are capable of being at home by themselves for a few hours.

Eliminate all of the random days off, shorten the school year, summer camps are easy to figure out.

If we must have one day a week off because of the need to observe every religious holiday in existence then put your kids in day camps.

Or lobby hard to put an end to the ridiculousness that is one day a week off, usually in the middle of the week, every week for one random religious holiday after another.

This is absolutely not true. Stop making things up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In just about every public school system around the country elementary schools start before 8 am, usually by 7:30, and then middle schools and then high schools.

I'm not sure why this is so hard. And yes ES schools get out earlier, but when you choose to have children and put them in public schools, which are free, you have to figure out how to take provide child care for them.

After a certain point ES kids are perfectly capable of being at home by themselves for a few hours after school. By 5th grade most kids drop out of SACC because they are capable of being at home by themselves for a few hours.

Eliminate all of the random days off, shorten the school year, summer camps are easy to figure out.

If we must have one day a week off because of the need to observe every religious holiday in existence then put your kids in day camps.

Or lobby hard to put an end to the ridiculousness that is one day a week off, usually in the middle of the week, every week for one random religious holiday after another.

This is absolutely not true. Stop making things up.

I taught elementary for years in three systems. Not FCPS. We always started at 8--except for one year when they had us start at 7. The county switched it back because people did not like little ones out in the dark.
Tardy at 8:15. And, that is what my elementary school did, too, when I was growing up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In just about every public school system around the country elementary schools start before 8 am, usually by 7:30, and then middle schools and then high schools.

I'm not sure why this is so hard. And yes ES schools get out earlier, but when you choose to have children and put them in public schools, which are free, you have to figure out how to take provide child care for them.

After a certain point ES kids are perfectly capable of being at home by themselves for a few hours after school. By 5th grade most kids drop out of SACC because they are capable of being at home by themselves for a few hours.

Eliminate all of the random days off, shorten the school year, summer camps are easy to figure out.

If we must have one day a week off because of the need to observe every religious holiday in existence then put your kids in day camps.

Or lobby hard to put an end to the ridiculousness that is one day a week off, usually in the middle of the week, every week for one random religious holiday after another.

This is absolutely not true. Stop making things up.

I taught elementary for years in three systems. Not FCPS. We always started at 8--except for one year when they had us start at 7. The county switched it back because people did not like little ones out in the dark.
Tardy at 8:15. And, that is what my elementary school did, too, when I was growing up.

Agree. I didn't grow up in Farifax and was shocked at the elementary times. It is 730 everywhere else. Middle school is 800 and high school is 830 or something similar.

And, I did send my oldest to private school for elementary partly because it started at 745am which was a convenient time for us. Post covid we sent our younger to public school as our work schedules were different. I still find the 920 start really inconveniently late.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If people have to pay for more child care, they may as well put their kids in private schools. I suspect that is why some of our enrollment is going down.

That doesn't make any sense - most private schools don't offer before and after care. If they do, it's far more expensive than SACC or the local TKD or gymanstics place.

The point is they won’t need before care if they do private school because they would have more reasonable start times.

I don't understand. Are private schools holding class for more than 8 hours per day?

[Anonymous]

From Kyle McDaniel's news letter:

School Start Times

Conversations on changing middle school start times have been ongoing for many years now, dating back to 2011. Earlier this year, an outside consultant presented their findings which, in my opinion, were lacking a realistic approach to changing the middle school schedule. More importantly, the conclusion drawn from their analysis was that there are only two ways to change middle school start times: 1) change start times for all grade levels; or 2) increase the transportation budget by $6.4-$17.3 million to acquire and run 75-100 additional busses.

I will not support option 2, which is not grounded in fiscal reality. As a result, and as I made clear back in February when this was presented to the School Board, if we have to shift all school start times, it is no longer a conversation on changing Middle School times, it is a conversation on changing all start times. As a result, the School Board tasked FCPS staff with developing options to shift all start times, and to collect community feedback on the most viable options.

The two options that were presented were: 1) All Elementary School start times are shifted earlier (7:45-8:10am); or 2) All school start times are shifted 30 minutes later which would have some Elementary School not starting to nearly 10am.

Based on analysis and community feedback, neither of these options are realistically viable. To put it more plainly, the only way to shift Middle School start times without causing significant disruption to the other 11 grade levels is to increase the transportation budget by ~$15m.

With those being the only two options, I do not support moving forward with changing any start times right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If people have to pay for more child care, they may as well put their kids in private schools. I suspect that is why some of our enrollment is going down.

That doesn't make any sense - most private schools don't offer before and after care. If they do, it's far more expensive than SACC or the local TKD or gymanstics place.

The point is they won’t need before care if they do private school because they would have more reasonable start times.

I don't understand. Are private schools holding class for more than 8 hours per day?

I don't think so. I also don't think that (private school tuition) + (after care costs) < (before care costs) + (after care costs).

So switching to private school just to save money seems like a silly idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If people have to pay for more child care, they may as well put their kids in private schools. I suspect that is why some of our enrollment is going down.

That doesn't make any sense - most private schools don't offer before and after care. If they do, it's far more expensive than SACC or the local TKD or gymanstics place.

The point is they won’t need before care if they do private school because they would have more reasonable start times.

I don't understand. Are private schools holding class for more than 8 hours per day?

I don't think so. I also don't think that (private school tuition) + (after care costs) < (before care costs) + (after care costs).

So switching to private school just to save money seems like a silly idea.

It’s definitely not cheaper to pay for private school tuition & aftercare. I don’t know what those posters are talking about. I’ve researched this before. The cheapest tuition are parochial schools that charge around 11-12k on tuition alone, and then you need to pay around 6-7K for aftercare. On top of that you have to pay for uniforms and registration fees every single year. There is also a technology fee charged every year. It is about 17K-20K per kid total at the least expensive private school. There is no way before and aftercare costs that much even if it’s not SACC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If people have to pay for more child care, they may as well put their kids in private schools. I suspect that is why some of our enrollment is going down.

That doesn't make any sense - most private schools don't offer before and after care. If they do, it's far more expensive than SACC or the local TKD or gymanstics place.

The point is they won’t need before care if they do private school because they would have more reasonable start times.

I don't understand. Are private schools holding class for more than 8 hours per day?

I don't think so. I also don't think that (private school tuition) + (after care costs) < (before care costs) + (after care costs).

So switching to private school just to save money seems like a silly idea.

It’s definitely not cheaper to pay for private school tuition & aftercare. I don’t know what those posters are talking about. I’ve researched this before. The cheapest tuition are parochial schools that charge around 11-12k on tuition alone, and then you need to pay around 6-7K for aftercare. On top of that you have to pay for uniforms and registration fees every single year. There is also a technology fee charged every year. It is about 17K-20K per kid total at the least expensive private school. There is no way before and aftercare costs that much even if it’s not SACC.

There is also the convenience and what is best for your child. Going to gymnastics at 7 and to school at 10 is not exactly good for kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In just about every public school system around the country elementary schools start before 8 am, usually by 7:30, and then middle schools and then high schools.

I'm not sure why this is so hard. And yes ES schools get out earlier, but when you choose to have children and put them in public schools, which are free, you have to figure out how to take provide child care for them.

After a certain point ES kids are perfectly capable of being at home by themselves for a few hours after school. By 5th grade most kids drop out of SACC because they are capable of being at home by themselves for a few hours.

Eliminate all of the random days off, shorten the school year, summer camps are easy to figure out.

If we must have one day a week off because of the need to observe every religious holiday in existence then put your kids in day camps.

Or lobby hard to put an end to the ridiculousness that is one day a week off, usually in the middle of the week, every week for one random religious holiday after another.

This is absolutely not true. Stop making things up.

I taught elementary for years in three systems. Not FCPS. We always started at 8--except for one year when they had us start at 7. The county switched it back because people did not like little ones out in the dark.
Tardy at 8:15. And, that is what my elementary school did, too, when I was growing up.

Growing up, my ES started at 9:00.

[Anonymous]

I mean the smart thing would be for FCPS to shell out for new busses so that all schools could start between 8:00 and 9:00. Or to cut bussing to AAP since that is a choice school to free up busses for middle schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's an idea that will cost the school system nothing. FCPS should adopt a liberal tardy policy for middle schoolers. Your kids can roll in after they got their 8 hours of sleep, at the next class start time. The benefits of more sleep can only help them academically and it won't interrupt the students that are already there. It's a pretty genius idea, if I do say so myself. :)

And while we're at it, kick the boundary change can down the road instead. No one seems on board with those changes.

Or, take away your middle schoolwrs phone by 9PM so they can fall asleep, and wake them up on time.

#BasicParentingSkills

Actually they need 9-12 hours of sleep, it varies per child, and there is a natural tendency to stay up later. A 9 PM bedtime would mean some kids would still need to sleep until 7-9 a.m., so they would still be sleep deprived with the same start times. If the school really cares about sleep, and it's a health problem, it should be treated like any other illness or health condition--up to the parents' discretion.

Actually, the CDC recommends 6-12 year olds get 9-12 hours of sleep per night and 13-18 year olds should get 8-10. So really, the later start times for the elementary kids are ideal. Shifting middle school no later than 8/830 am would get the middle schoolers 8 hours if they're in bed by 11, even more if they're in bed earlier.

Why don't you listen to the teachers? Speaking from experience, teaching young kids in the afternoon is quite different from the energy level earlier in the day.

What time do you think elementary kids go to bed? Mine were in bed by 9 most nights. Younger elementary, by 8:30 lights out.

The same applies to middle and high school. Over the past 30 years, I've taught both middle and high school. The students are far more engaged and energetic in the morning. The last classes of the day are sluggish, sleepy, and unable to participate the way the kids in the morning did.