Elementary parents, pay attention to start times

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My ES kid has soccer practice 3x a week at 4:45. It’s rush to make it on time as it is since we are at a late school. Adding 30 minutes to the day of a late school is crazy.

That is strange since county field permits never, ever begin before 5 pm. Which field is this?

Police Field

Lewinsville, too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were at a 9:20 start time ES and had no issues with the start or end time. My kids loved sleeping in until 8:30 or so.

But under this plan your school would start at 9:50 am and get out at 4:40. That’s a lot for little kids. They can’t concentrate that well in the late afternoon.

Untrue. Our kids thrive on a late schedule. It’s the early wakeups that kill their day. We have night owl kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were at a 9:20 start time ES and had no issues with the start or end time. My kids loved sleeping in until 8:30 or so.

But under this plan your school would start at 9:50 am and get out at 4:40. That’s a lot for little kids. They can’t concentrate that well in the late afternoon.

Actually kids can and do pay attention in afternoons. Many many kids going to Curie and RSM etc after school and doing fine learning at 5 and 6 so above isn’t a true statement for a lot of kids.

+1 this exactly. Many elem kids do educational after school activities.

Teacher here. The last hour is the hardest of the day and very little learning happens. I don’t care what parents say. That is the reality. Ask any ES teacher and they will say the same.

So elementary schools can get creative if their schedule shifts 30 min later. Make a short recess time at the end of the day for the little ones. Or have a study hall period for the older kids or maybe even intervention time for some grade levels. Acting like this is the end of the world is ridiculous. It’s 30 minutes!

It's 30 munutes.

The middle school kids need to just keep the schedule they currently have, or take the one that gets out at 4:30.

30 minutes of extra sleep in the morning is huge for them.

This! My 8th grader gets driven to school just so she gets an extra 25 min of sleep. Her school starts at 7:25 and it’s a 25 min drive for us to get her there. That extra sleep makes a huge difference for her. (At this for almost 2 years now).

[Anonymous]

Seems like elementary teachers who have a big problem with this schedule. I hope they’re speaking up as well. (I could be wrong, maybe they love the late start and end times).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were at a 9:20 start time ES and had no issues with the start or end time. My kids loved sleeping in until 8:30 or so.

But under this plan your school would start at 9:50 am and get out at 4:40. That’s a lot for little kids. They can’t concentrate that well in the late afternoon.

Actually kids can and do pay attention in afternoons. Many many kids going to Curie and RSM etc after school and doing fine learning at 5 and 6 so above isn’t a true statement for a lot of kids.

+1 this exactly. Many elem kids do educational after school activities.

Teacher here. The last hour is the hardest of the day and very little learning happens. I don’t care what parents say. That is the reality. Ask any ES teacher and they will say the same.

That is the case for every kid no matter what time the day ends.

Exactly! The timing is completely irrelevant. Elementary school kids who are in a school building an entire day are obviously just DONE in the seventh hour. Makes no difference what time it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Local businesses will have to start providing before care because SAAC isn’t going to begin to cover the need for before care if elementary kids aren’t going to school until 9:50.

On the slip side, the businesses that provide aftercare probably won’t be as needed if those same kids are getting home at 5, 5:30.

Those taekwondo places will easily adjust their hours. No issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were at a 9:20 start time ES and had no issues with the start or end time. My kids loved sleeping in until 8:30 or so.

But under this plan your school would start at 9:50 am and get out at 4:40. That’s a lot for little kids. They can’t concentrate that well in the late afternoon.

Actually kids can and do pay attention in afternoons. Many many kids going to Curie and RSM etc after school and doing fine learning at 5 and 6 so above isn’t a true statement for a lot of kids.

+1 this exactly. Many elem kids do educational after school activities.

Teacher here. The last hour is the hardest of the day and very little learning happens. I don’t care what parents say. That is the reality. Ask any ES teacher and they will say the same.

That is the case for every kid no matter what time the day ends.

Exactly! The timing is completely irrelevant. Elementary school kids who are in a school building an entire day are obviously just DONE in the seventh hour. Makes no difference what time it is.

Wrong. If a lot of those kids are in the building at SAAC for two hours before their real school day even begins, they’re timing out on any actual learning very very early.

[Anonymous]

[img]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Local businesses will have to start providing before care because SAAC isn’t going to begin to cover the need for before care if elementary kids aren’t going to school until 9:50.

On the slip side, the businesses that provide aftercare probably won’t be as needed if those same kids are getting home at 5, 5:30.

Those taekwondo places will easily adjust their hours. No issue.

To 7:00 am? Are you volunteering on their behalf?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just to clarify- The start times is not because of vocal MS parents. It is from school Board action from 10 years ago that got delayed- was to happen when did HS but it got deferred. Silly if think is MS parents driving this. MS is just 2 years- so any MS kids now will be in HS by time this would be rolled out.

Yup, OP is a little bit crazy.

Yeah, Op tried to monopolize the other thread with her anti-middle school rhetoric and now started another thread here just about the elementary level. It’s all the same hogwash again and again. All kids of all ages deserve to start at 8 am or later. My Gosh, the Academy of Pediatrics wants start times after 8:30am. So, going with an 8am start for middle school is even a concession but one that improves life from the 7am current start time. Kids’ alarm clocks going off at 5:30am is brutal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just to clarify- The start times is not because of vocal MS parents. It is from school Board action from 10 years ago that got delayed- was to happen when did HS but it got deferred. Silly if think is MS parents driving this. MS is just 2 years- so any MS kids now will be in HS by time this would be rolled out.

Yup, OP is a little bit crazy.

Yeah, Op tried to monopolize the other thread with her anti-middle school rhetoric and now started another thread here just about the elementary level. It’s all the same hogwash again and again. All kids of all ages deserve to start at 8 am or later. My Gosh, the Academy of Pediatrics wants start times after 8:30am. So, going with an 8am start for middle school is even a concession but one that improves life from the 7am current start time. Kids’ alarm clocks going off at 5:30am is brutal.

I’m not the OP but it’s not crazy to not want elementary school to start at almost 10am. I wholeheartedly agree middle school should start later than it currently does. Both can be true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[img]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Local businesses will have to start providing before care because SAAC isn’t going to begin to cover the need for before care if elementary kids aren’t going to school until 9:50.

On the slip side, the businesses that provide aftercare probably won’t be as needed if those same kids are getting home at 5, 5:30.

Those taekwondo places will easily adjust their hours. No issue.

To 7:00 am? Are you volunteering on their behalf?

Yes, all of our small businesses in the area adjust to the district time changes. When they had half day Mondays, we accommodated that. When they took that away, we flexed and accommodated that. It’s how we roll as a pre-care or after-care business.

[Anonymous]

If you have 3 kids spaced out by 2 years, then you are dealing with the middle school operational hours for 6 years. Things really need to improve for middle schoolers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d love any and all action items to provide my input against this plan. Tell me who to call, email, etc.

Email your school board rep. I did last week after I saw that E is even possibly still being considered. I made a list of issues with it.

Would you care to share the list?

Here were the bullet points I shared.

-Developmentally inappropriate. Most kids are up early and are exhausted by 3. They have a much harder time attending to learning in the afternoon.

-ES also have preschools so 3 and 4 year olds would also be getting this awful schedule.

-Childcare- By starting school close to 10 childcare needs and costs will increase and with the current economy that is a big deal.

- Besides SPED, Elementary has more shortages than middle/high school. There would be a mass exodus of teachers that live out of Fairfax to surrounding counties because it won’t be worth the extra couple thousand to stay when it would affect our families.

-Currently, late ES that dismiss at 4:05, really don’t leave until 4:20. This is if they are on my time. Currently, most kids get home between 4:45-5:00. If pushed back 30 mins, most kids won’t be leaving till 4:55 and getting home closer to 5:30. You will also have young kids walking home in the dark.


These were the main points. Basically, I support finding a solution, but we can do better than plan E which will appease middle school parents and upset everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[img]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Local businesses will have to start providing before care because SAAC isn’t going to begin to cover the need for before care if elementary kids aren’t going to school until 9:50.

On the slip side, the businesses that provide aftercare probably won’t be as needed if those same kids are getting home at 5, 5:30.

Those taekwondo places will easily adjust their hours. No issue.

To 7:00 am? Are you volunteering on their behalf?

Yes, all of our small businesses in the area adjust to the district time changes. When they had half day Mondays, we accommodated that. When they took that away, we flexed and accommodated that. It’s how we roll as a pre-care or after-care business.

Name your business.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were at a 9:20 start time ES and had no issues with the start or end time. My kids loved sleeping in until 8:30 or so.

But under this plan your school would start at 9:50 am and get out at 4:40. That’s a lot for little kids. They can’t concentrate that well in the late afternoon.

Or maybe no change for this ES because a 920 start time would fall into the range of adjusted start times.