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

[Anonymous]

I just think it's funny how so many people are worried about their up-coming ms students having to go to school at 7:30, when thousands of ms students in FCPS have been doing this for the last 40 years! Like you never noticed that other kids (at the secondary schools) had a raw deal? And suddenly now that it's your kid, it's unacceptable?

Suck it up. It's your kids' turn to catch the 6:40 a.m. bus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The consensus was essentially that middle schoolers could suck it up for 2 years of early starts in order to benefit from having the later start time for 4 years of HS.
Any option that provided more equality across start times would just cost too much $$$$, so this is what we're stuck with.

That's not true. The cheapest option ($2million) was BOTH MS and HS start late. That was win-win.

The MS early option is expensive. 7 million? 4 million? Something like that.

[Anonymous]

That's not true. The cheapest option ($2million) was BOTH MS and HS start late. That was win-win.

Yes. But people didn't like that option because the HS start time was even later. I personally preferred option 1, but that was the most expensive so it was never going to happen.

And I'm the poster with the 7:20 MS start time now. To clarify, I don't "like" that the MS will still start earlier than the HS. But I think this is an OK compromise and an improvement over the current situation for many!

[Anonymous]

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just think it's funny how so many people are worried about their up-coming ms students having to go to school at 7:30, when thousands of ms students in FCPS have been doing this for the last 40 years! Like you never noticed that other kids (at the secondary schools) had a raw deal? And suddenly now that it's your kid, it's unacceptable?

Suck it up. It's your kids' turn to catch the 6:40 a.m. bus.

That's the point....too early start times have been a problem for too long, and this doesn't fix that. Yet people are acting like "mission accomplished!".
I grew up in FCPS, went to a secondary school for MS and then TJ (which thankfully had a reasonable start time).

When people have been talking about sleep and later start times for the past 2.5 years+, I did not expect it to move MS 20 minutes earlier. So yeah, I'm going to complain about that. My kids will survive, but I think we can all agree that this is not ideal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just think it's funny how so many people are worried about their up-coming ms students having to go to school at 7:30, when thousands of ms students in FCPS have been doing this for the last 40 years! Like you never noticed that other kids (at the secondary schools) had a raw deal? And suddenly now that it's your kid, it's unacceptable?

Suck it up. It's your kids' turn to catch the 6:40 a.m. bus.

So true. Once it affects someone personally, then it becomes unacceptable, but if it's someone else's kid waiting outside in the dark? Oh well, too bad.

Our middle school has always started at 7:40am, so 7:30 won't be a huge difference. The kids will still be waiting outside in the pitch dark for a 6:20 bus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

+ 1. Our four years at Langley were hell because of the 7:20 start time, which meant in our case, up at 5:30, breakfast, change, walk to bus at 6:20, etc. all in the dark.

Then why do you put so much pressure on your school board member to keep you at Langley? Why were you left out of the redistricting for South Lakes? You are much closer to other schools.

Not the PP, but we are also in a similar situation (Langley H.S., 6:20am bus). Why do you assume we've all put pressure on the school board to keep the boundaries as is? I, for one would love a closer high school. The trek to Langley is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

That's not true. The cheapest option ($2million) was BOTH MS and HS start late. That was win-win.

Yes. But people didn't like that option because the HS start time was even later. I personally preferred option 1, but that was the most expensive so it was never going to happen.

And I'm the poster with the 7:20 MS start time now. To clarify, I don't "like" that the MS will still start earlier than the HS. But I think this is an OK compromise and an improvement over the current situation for many!

A 9:30am start time for HS was a definite NO GO for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just think it's funny how so many people are worried about their up-coming ms students having to go to school at 7:30, when thousands of ms students in FCPS have been doing this for the last 40 years! Like you never noticed that other kids (at the secondary schools) had a raw deal? And suddenly now that it's your kid, it's unacceptable?

Suck it up. It's your kids' turn to catch the 6:40 a.m. bus.

So true. Once it affects someone personally, then it becomes unacceptable, but if it's someone else's kid waiting outside in the dark? Oh well, too bad.

Our middle school has always started at 7:40am, so 7:30 won't be a huge difference. The kids will still be waiting outside in the pitch dark for a 6:20 bus.

It's always been unacceptable, no one thinks otherwise. Many of us were hoping for an across the board improvement. I don't know why people think it's about "turns" or "sucking it up" because things were done a certain way in the past, everyone deserves to suffer at some point. It's faulty thinking. There isn't one way that will work for all students and families, but it is ironic that a mission to start school later is actually starting school earlier.

[Anonymous]

Not the PP, but we are also in a similar situation (Langley H.S., 6:20am bus). Why do you assume we've all put pressure on the school board to keep the boundaries as is? I, for one would love a closer high school. The trek to Langley is ridiculous.

You must have missed the South Lakes redistricting a few years ago. Ask around.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just think it's funny how so many people are worried about their up-coming ms students having to go to school at 7:30, when thousands of ms students in FCPS have been doing this for the last 40 years! Like you never noticed that other kids (at the secondary schools) had a raw deal? And suddenly now that it's your kid, it's unacceptable?

Suck it up. It's your kids' turn to catch the 6:40 a.m. bus.

So true. Once it affects someone personally, then it becomes unacceptable, but if it's someone else's kid waiting outside in the dark? Oh well, too bad.
Our middle school has always started at 7:40am, so 7:30 won't be a huge difference. The kids will still be waiting outside in the pitch dark for a 6:20 bus.

My middle school student loves the early 7:20 start time because it leave plenty of "free" time in the afternoons. Sports, Homework, Outside, Friendships, etc...

[Anonymous]

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.

less hours physically in the school building.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
My middle school student loves the early 7:20 start time because it leave plenty of "free" time in the afternoons. Sports, Homework, Outside, Friendships, etc...

Too much free time for teenagers cause problems

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These pampered high schoolers are going to be in fir a rude awakening when they graduate and have their first college class start at 7:30 with no parents to wake them or drive them to class halfway across campus,

Where did you go to college? Are you masochistic? My classes all started at 10 or later. I go a BSEE, not a fluff degree, if it matters. And very few jobs start earlier than 8, in central time or eastern time.

Dream on. And BTW PP, this is what they are breeding: Lovely...http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/jobcenter/workplace/bruzzese/story/2012-08-26/helicopter-parents-hurt-generation-of-workers/57292900/1