By JOSEPH KELLARD
At its next meeting on Monday, Jan. 28, the Board of Education will vote to ratify the new teachers contract, part of which proposes that teachers work an additional 15 minutes each day. Subsequently, the length of the school day will be extended at the elementary and middle schools by 15 minutes during the 2002-03 year.
The elementary school schedule is currently 8:20 a.m. to 2:55 p.m., and the proposed new schedule is 8:10 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The middle school schedule will change from 7:45 a.m.-2:15 p.m., to 7:30 a.m.-2:15 p.m.
At least one parent is not happy about the proposal.
Parent Jacqueline Tukel has circulated a flyer stating, in part, that for elementary school this means that the morning meeting of chorus, band, orchestra, extra help and other morning clubs could be as early as 7:20 a.m. At the middle school, many extra classes begin at 7 a.m., and either those extra help classes will begin even earlier, Tukel argues, or they will all have to be offered after-school, which may preclude some students from participating in after-school activities.
Concerned that under the proposed schedule children who are bused may have to stand at bus stops at 6:50 a.m. in winter darkness, Tukel argues, Certainly, at
minimum, later ending times for the school day is
more desirable than the proposed schedule requiring students to be at school earlier.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Herb Brown said that many factors go into determining time schedules.
You have to look at the parents' convenience to drop off and pick up their kids, he said. Some people leave early for work, so they would be happy if their children went to school ten minutes earlier.
Brown explained that the reasoning behind the staggered time schedules between the different schools is to allow parents who may have children in elementary and middle schools, and even another in high school, to drop them off and pick them up on time.
If we started the school day for everyone at the same time, parents couldn't be at two places at the same time, he said.
An additional factor is bus services, which must be able to drop off students at one school and pick up other students to take them to another school.
While the new contract stipulates that teachers will be required to work an extra 15 minutes, the proposed time schedules are not etched in stone, Brown said.
Tukel charges that the school district was not publicly forthcoming with its proposed time changes.
The schedule was never brought out to the community in a proactive way, which it should have been, but only by word of mouth by a select few who would know what is happening, and then through the gossip chain, Tukel said. Never was it brought out in a board meeting agenda, never in a notice sent to homes. This is not a change of two minutes, it's 15 minutes.
Brown said that he spoke to the Parent-Teacher Association Council about the proposed time changes at their regular monthly meeting on Jan. 9.
Every school in the room was represented and nobody had a concern. They were pleased with it. We may modify the times by five minutes if we think that's the right thing to do. We'll take a look at it, he said.
Brown added that he is certainly willing to talk to any parent who is concerned about the changes.
Sandie Schoell, president of the PTA Council, said, Nothing about the time changes could be announced prior to the settlement of the contract, which was settled right before we went into the holiday break. There is plenty of time to make corrections and adjustments as we get feedback from the parents.
Tukel said she, for one, plans to raise her concerns at the next school board meeting on Monday, Jan. 28 at the Oceanside High School, when the board is expected to vote on and officially ratify the teachers contract.
