I have a Kindergartner now and two kids to enter Kindergarten in two years. I would be in favor of lengthening the school day if the additional time was for recess and lunch. My kid's lunch comes home half-eaten almost every day because he runs out of time. And the 20 minutes of recess is not enough, especially as some of that time is spent cleaning up after lunch/lining up to go outside/lining up to go back inside.

I have a first grader and have been terribly disappointed in the quality of MCPS. I strongly support the proposed changes. With respect to elementary school students, I believe that the extra time should be used to lengthen the lunch time. Kids do not have enough time to eat. Even my pediatrician has told me this about when she attends her children's MCPS lunch time. There could also be two shorter recesses.

It is FOOLISH to extend time for so-called learning. Children's brains need exercise and nourishment to learn. Far too many schools keep them inside ALL day and the slightest bit of tiny drizzles keeps them chained to a desk.

I'm not a physician, but these factors cannot be good for young minds.

I also support the later start times for high school students and commend Mandi Mader's activism to keep fighting for this. This county is full of smart people and NIH employees -- when will start listening to science about what adolescent brains need?

Go ahead, fire away, DCUM is full of nasty posters, but these are my beliefs about what I think could potentially elevate MCPS back to the high stature it once had.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's all for the good, but maybe not enough change.

ES need more time to inculcate basic knowledge. The best private schools start at 8am and end at 3 or 4pm. Good foreign schools also have longer ES days.

High school - it's time we acknowledged that teens learn better later in the day and need to sleep in.

+1000

Those changes in start times are really small increments. I do like adding 30 mins to school day but agree that even more time would be better. This is a baaaby step in the right direction.

+1

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid in ES, and honestly, I think the day is long enough. I'd rather not have another 30 minutes added on.

However, I do agree with the later HS and earlier MS start times.

Assuming the extra time is "instructional" (which Starr has said it will be) I also agree that the ES school day is long enough, especially for the K-2 years, but still even for 3-5. There is a LOT of wasted time in elementary school. Use that time first. Also there is a LOT of poor instruction in elementary school. I don't want my kid spending even more time in school with bad teachers and bad instruction.

I could support another 1/2 hour of instruction if more outside play time were incorporated into the school day or if the instruction included foreign language starting in elementary school or if the instruction included more explicit one-on-one reading instruction and explicit handwriting instruction at a young age. But another 1/2 hour of more of the same is a non-starter for me.

The teachers union is supportive of the proposal, provided that the extra 30 minutes is not core teaching time, but provides more time for specials or possibly new specials, like STEM or foreign language.

We're currently losing the global race because of weak expectations and curriculum standards. Until that changes, you can keep kids in school all day long and they still won't get ahead. What you teach is even more important than how long you teach it.

Also, what will the teachers union do about extending the teacher's day by 30 minutes. I'm sure they'll have a position on that.

Anonymous wrote:It's all for the good, but maybe not enough change.

ES need more time to inculcate basic knowledge. The best private schools start at 8am and end at 3 or 4pm. Good foreign schools also have longer ES days.

High school - it's time we acknowledged that teens learn better later in the day and need to sleep in.

I posted the above and retract it!

Ideally what I would want is shortening significantly the long summer holiday in order to prevent summer forgetfulness and waste less time on review (my 3rd grader spent September reviewing things he already knew). Americans don't go on months-long holidays anyway, and summer camp is expensive.
With the extra school time we could either shorten each school day slightly to keep the same number of total hours. Or - my personal preference - keep them to what we currently have, so that we can start making up for lost time in the global school race which we are currently losing

I have a kid in ES, and honestly, I think the day is long enough. I'd rather not have another 30 minutes added on.

However, I do agree with the later HS and earlier MS start times.

I guess all the non-MCPS extra-curricular provides (Martial Arts, Soccer etc) - will also adjust for these timings as well.

Some parents have suggested that perhaps we need to look into different winter and non-winter timings - beyond the "Fall-Back, Spring-Forward" time change , to ensure that the kids are not coming home when it is dark from school and other activities.

How about kids who play sports in HS. Their long day will get longer.

I am thinking of kids in magnet SMACS program in Poolesville HS and Blair HS, who play sports. What will their day look like. I agree with the need for teens to sleep in the mornings.

If my ES child's school ended at 4:00, the bus wouldn't drop my child off until 4:30. In the winter, it starts getting dark then. ES children at magnet schools would be getting off the bus in the dark.

If the ES day is supposed to be longer, I would rather that MCPS added the 30 minutes to the beginning of the day.

Which is probably completely infeasible, because of the bus schedules.

Anonymous wrote:It's all for the good, but maybe not enough change.

ES need more time to inculcate basic knowledge. The best private schools start at 8am and end at 3 or 4pm. Good foreign schools also have longer ES days.

High school - it's time we acknowledged that teens learn better later in the day and need to sleep in.

+1000

Those changes in start times are really small increments. I do like adding 30 mins to school day but agree that even more time would be better. This is a baaaby step in the right direction.

It's all for the good, but maybe not enough change.

ES need more time to inculcate basic knowledge. The best private schools start at 8am and end at 3 or 4pm. Good foreign schools also have longer ES days.

High school - it's time we acknowledged that teens learn better later in the day and need to sleep in.

Here is the transcript -

This is a message from Montgomery County Public Schools. For the next several months, MCPS is gathering feedback on recommended changes to school starting and ending times, also known as Bell Times.

Superintendent Joshua Starr has recommended that high schools start 50 minutes later; middle schools start 10 minutes earlier; and that the elementary school day be extended by 30 minutes. None of these changes would occur until the 2015-2016 school year, at the earliest.

There are several ways you can provide your thoughts on the recommendation, including four community meetings. The first meeting will be held Monday, October 28, at 7:00 p.m. at Paint Branch High School in Burtonsville. Childcare for ages 4 and up and interpretation will be provided. For more information, visit the MCPS website. Thank you.

Just received a phone message from MCPS about the public hearings for proposed changes for bell times.
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/info/belltimesworkgroup/index.aspx

ES and HS students will be ones who will be affected mostly. It would be interesting to hear what DCUM parents think.