PP above. Why not give the middle schooler a second copy of the key. They are old enough to be alone for an hour.

I am against shortening summer break. Summer is when my child grows in other ways. We like a good long break from the school year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As the mother of two high schoolers who are near comatose when leaving the house every morning before 7 am, I am definitely in favor of the later start times for high school.

The are near comatose because they are up all night texting and tweeting to the world. Take away their phones at 6 pm and you would be amazed what will happen.

Not PP, but my kids' often aren't even home by 6pm. Add in homework, etc. and they're up until 11 usually. No Twitters or iPhones, either.

Definitely in favor of new schedule! Great idea.

I am all for the new schedule.

I am SAHM. I have kids in ES, MS and HS.

I feel it is the right schedule based on kids needs and not the needs of parents and businesses.

We will adjust to the changes when they will come.

I also advocate - more breaks during the school year and a shorter summer vacation. Again - after a couple of years, we all will adjust to the inconvenience.

Anonymous wrote:MCPS elementary schools: 6 hours 25 minutes.

Howard County elementary schools: 6 hours 30 minutes.

FCPS elementary schools: 6 hours 25 minutes.

The public elementary school I went to: 6 hours 30 minutes.

Which elementary schools in the US have a 6 hour 55 minute day?

One of my kids is in private elementary and their day is 8am to 3:30pm = 7.5hrs. They have a 15min snack break at 9:45am, 50min PE 3x a week that is outside unless it is below 35 degrees. 65-70min for lunch and recess, foreign language, and once a week collaborations. My other child is in public with 25min lunch IF the teacher gets them down there on time. 20min of recess, One 25min PE class a week that is ALWAYS indoors. Honestly, ES needs to be extended so there is time for other things besides drilling facts. Get the kids some food, play, fresh air, free time with friends. It would make class time so much easier for teachers and students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As the mother of two high schoolers who are near comatose when leaving the house every morning before 7 am, I am definitely in favor of the later start times for high school.

The are near comatose because they are up all night texting and tweeting to the world. Take away their phones at 6 pm and you would be amazed what will happen.

+ 1 million!!!!

Anonymous wrote:As the mother of two high schoolers who are near comatose when leaving the house every morning before 7 am, I am definitely in favor of the later start times for high school.

The are near comatose because they are up all night texting and tweeting to the world. Take away their phones at 6 pm and you would be amazed what will happen.

Im fine with MCPS adding an extra 30+ Minutes to the ES school day to make it even with HS & MS . But I disagree with changing the bell schedules for HS & MS . The schedule right now is fine I have no complaints about it .


But if the bell times really change , I'm going to have a BIG problem with it . Bad Idea .

BAD IDEA COMPLETELY !

Don't change the bell times for high school or middle school .
How are middle schoolers going to get out before high schoolers ? Just keep it in order , HS gets out first , MS get out second , and ES gets out last ! Keep it in order , oldest to youngest .

Say I'm in HS for example ; and I have a sibling in MS , how am I suppose to pick up my sibling if MS gets out first ? And how is my sibling suppose to get into our house when I have the key ? I have the key because I am the oldest ! What is my sibling going to do , Wonder around town for 30 minutes waiting for me to get out of school ?

Another example ; Since HS students get out at 2:10pm
students might have after school activities starting at 3:00pm
ANOTHER BAD IDEA . Your ruining students schedules .

It's not the schools bell times fault for students being sleepy and tired during class or a bunch of students coming in the morning late for school .
Its the students themselves ! They choose what time they go to sleep , if they're aren't getting enough sleep at night its there fault ! If they come late for school , its there fault !

I like the bell times right now . If it changes IT MESSES UP MY WHOLE SCHEDULE .
It doesn't even make sense why you would make middle school start 10 minutes earlier , MS students are younger than HS students so MS students need more sleep !
MS students cannot get out before HS students it just doesn't make no sense .

HS students are closer to being in college and closer to having a real full time job . A lot of jobs in America start early in the morning so it would be nice if students get to practice getting up early .

Personally , and for everyones daily lives this
idea / recommendation
Is STUPID !
All you wanna do make HS students get more sleep so they dont fall asleep in class or come to school late or what ever .
But ITS NOT YOUR FAULT , its the students they chose to sleep late and arrive to school late .

All you need to do is hold assemblies and meetings with the MCPS schools and explain to them how important it is to get a good nights sleep and arrive to school on time and start giving out WORSE punishments for arriving late and other difficulties .

As the mother of two high schoolers who are near comatose when leaving the house every morning before 7 am, I am definitely in favor of the later start times for high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't schools favor shorter summer breaks?

Is it the teacher's union? Do teachers prefer having the longe summers off? I'd guess they'd rather just have more time off during the year so they get more breaks from the kids!

Or is it the summer camp lobby that wants the longer summer??

Seems like a no-brainer to have shorter summers.

Why would YOU prefer shorter summers?

to take care of childcare for two more months?

I'm the PP and DH is a SAHD, so child are is not an issue for us.

I find that my kids spend a few weeks in Sept relearning/reviewing stuff they did the year before. Plus, haven't there been studies out that show students DO lose some of their knowledge over those two months off?

Sounds like SAHD needs to spend part of the summer doing school year review

Thanks for your concern, but no worries about my kids. Both are in ES, and DH does work with the kids over the summers - reading every day, writing practice, math work. It's not an issue for them at all, but they do still have to sit through the 'review' time in the beginning of the year anyway.

Anonymous wrote:

Shorter summer - 7 weeks is still plenty of time to get in vacations, camp, swim season, etc.

You do realize that there is a cost to shortening summer break, even scaling it back from 10 to 7 weeks, don't you? All school employees would have to receive about an 8% increase in pay to account for the extra time added to the school year. Good luck with that.

Anonymous wrote:Why don't schools favor shorter summer breaks?

Is it the teacher's union? Do teachers prefer having the longe summers off? I'd guess they'd rather just have more time off during the year so they get more breaks from the kids!

Or is it the summer camp lobby that wants the longer summer??

Seems like a no-brainer to have shorter summers.

Businesses don't want it. Especially at the beach. A shorter summer season means less money for them.

Elementary schools should start earlier - little ones tend to wake earlier anyway plus working parents cannot leave little ones home to get on the bus like they could with MS and HS kids. Start the bigger kids later.

MS and HS should start and end later. 2:10 dismissal is very early. An hour later would not be huge problem to still get sports in. Private schools do it.

Shorter summer - 7 weeks is still plenty of time to get in vacations, camp, swim season, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't schools favor shorter summer breaks?

Is it the teacher's union? Do teachers prefer having the longe summers off? I'd guess they'd rather just have more time off during the year so they get more breaks from the kids!

Or is it the summer camp lobby that wants the longer summer??

Seems like a no-brainer to have shorter summers.

Why would YOU prefer shorter summers?

to take care of childcare for two more months?

I'm the PP and DH is a SAHD, so child are is not an issue for us.

I find that my kids spend a few weeks in Sept relearning/reviewing stuff they did the year before. Plus, haven't there been studies out that show students DO lose some of their knowledge over those two months off?

Sounds like SAHD needs to spend part of the summer doing school year review