SCHOLARS, PARENTS AND COMMUNITY --- How do you feel about the KCMSD 2010-2011 bell times revision? Some parent comments:
"One parent likes it because she can drop her Kindergartner off to her class before she heads to work at 830a."
"Another parent is concerned about high schoolers whose family depend on thier after school jobs may lose one hours pay."
"Many parents are concerned about smaller childre being on buses earlier in the morning?
Tell me what you think...take the poll also!!!
***O-P-V...oppose-propose-volunteer***
Hi Candace,
ReplyDeleteTried to post comment did not work on my end so thought I would just email instead. I do not like the new bell times. As you know we switched from a charter school to Longfellow. The charter school began at 7:25am. My kids had to get on the bus at 6:30. The result: very tired children. Kids, especially elementary age kids, need 9-11hours of sleep each night. Many behavior and learning issues at school are amplified by lack of adequate sleep. This year my kids will walk to school. However with the new bell times even they must BE ASLEEP by 7:30-8pm to ensure the have enough quality sleep (rem sleep) to ensure success at school. What about the kids that have to ride the bus? Are we just putting up more hurdles to success?
Jennifer
Sent from my iPhone
I love your blog, Candace! Easy, right? :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jennifer. We went through this last year in deciding whether to put Zion in PK or not. By the time we got him home from school, cooked dinner, and did bath time, we had 20 minutes of "quality time" as a family together.
Zion wasn't in LINC/after school care, but if he had been, we wouldn't have had any time during the week at all.
I know that one of Dr. C's big initiatives is longer school days. I've read that implementing longer school days is a step to achieving academic progress, but I wonder how much we're sacrificing for it.
Not arguing with it - just undecided. :)
I understand both points, and below is a response I advised a parent on Tuesday.
ReplyDelete"Whether I am for or against, I will always try to be objective and only provide information. As I do understand there will always be pros and cons to every situation, I believe reviewing them all and reminding ourselves the bottom line of why we are all here...for our scholar's best interests. I encourage everyone at to take a look at some information about revised bell times as it relates to the scholars. Here are some starters.
http://www.cjuhsd.k12.ca.us/ See the update on the first page about bell times. I wasn't able to get a hold of a parent contact at one of the Title I high schools. When I called the school, they laughed when I asked for a parent group contact and the principal advised he is the contact.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/19/AR2009031903043.html What measures were taken into account for scholar interests and parent/staff concerns? Did the district communicate with stakeholders? What were their methods of reaching out to families?
http://www.thedoctorwillseeyounow.com/content/kids/art2999.html Starting School Later helps the older scholar’s article
I hope the links will inspire us to look at every angle and decide what is best. I have been looking to build relationships with the community so if children are on a bus just after 6a, then how can we guarantee their safety? Can we build a community where our children are safe again?
Once again, this district failed to solicit valuable parental input from the parents of scholars who would be impacted the most on the new bell schedules.
ReplyDeleteLets see, under the revised bell schedules, we will have our younger scholars at the bus stop in the dark, possibly by themselves. In the afternoon, we will have are younger scholars returning home before our older scholars.
Some of these younger scholars and their parents depend on the older scholars to be home or at the bus stop for their younger sibling(s) or cousins. This will not be possible under the revised bell schedules.
What is wrong with this picture?
I agree with Christine and Jennifer. I don't like it OR the fact that it was changed at the last minute.
ReplyDeleteI find it hard to trust a district that is contually testing the waters and making changes such as this one within 3 weeks before school. Yes, they put it out on twitter ...and a couple of other means but not everyone has access - perhaps an electronic phone call to all families should have been in order. Regarding this change perhaps they should put out the "research" for families. All I know is that I am being robbed of precious time that I have to spend with my children b/c I work until 5:30 and will now have to put them to bed at least an hour earlier to make it possible for them to wake up earlier in the a.m. Also, if the district is really wanting to focus on increasing our childrens ability to learn perhaps they need to address the food that is served in the lunch rooms.
ReplyDeleteIt is truly a no wonder why folks are leaving the district.
Okay, so the bottom line is parent communication. Are any of you aware of the SACs or DAC and how they are supposed to support parent/community communication? I am in agreement the communication with parents in the district is slim to none, so how do we hold ourselves accountable to ensuring when changes occur we will know and can weigh in on? We are continuously reacting to situations, how do we begin proactively addressing issues? My suggestion, contact your school’s SAC Chair (or DAC) and find out why they did not know about the revision. If it is a communication bottleneck, let’s start assessing where it is and ensure all parents know at all times of what is occurring. If your SAC is at a standstill with the school district, advise for them to go to the DAC and iron out these process issues with you.
ReplyDeleteThe schools, after all, are there for the children, and not the children for the schools.
ReplyDeleteCandace thank you for putting up a blog and trying to constructively address the issues regarding this new bell time. I agree that there will always be pros and cons with any decision, but overwhelmingly from all spheres, there are only cons. I have yet to see/hear one person or family applaud this decision, including the very high school age students for whom the decision was made. Furthermore, communication is a huge issue. In most instances, I would say let's be proactive - but the parents of this district are unbelievably proactive. I say the question is accountablility. If this district is making business decisions - then it needs to make customer service decisions as well. It is not my responsibility to hunt down information vital to properly educating my child. Accountability - that is what needs to be addressed across the board.
ReplyDelete