After complaints from parents, Portland school officials are backtracking on a decision to start some elementary schools at 7:45 a.m., more than an hour earlier than the current start times.
“That’s just too doggone early, especially for the young kids,” Lyseth Elementary School parent John Mina said Friday. “A whole hour makes a big difference.”
The school board voted Tuesday to adopt new times for all district schools in order to add 20 minutes to the school day.
Most of the board’s discussion, and comments from the public, focused on whether to start high school students later. After a public hearing, the board voted to keep high school start times the same, but to have eight elementary schools start earlier.
That’s because of the additional 20 minutes of class time, and a limited number of buses to transport students.
But a group of parents objected to the changes and started a change.org petition this week.
“The school board botched this one big time and I will not stand for it!” Mina wrote on the online petition. “Do I want my child walking to school at dawn? Younger children need home supervision when they arrive home after school. Was there not any consideration for a working family that will need to leave work earlier or even need to find another job because their child will arrive home an hour earlier?”
Currently, elementary schools begin at 8:55 a.m. and end at 3:05 p.m. Some schools, including East End and Riverton, have special morning programs that start earlier. Under the changes approved Tuesday:
• East End, Longfellow, Lyseth and Presumpscot elementary schools would go from 7:45 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.
• Hall, Riverton, Ocean Avenue and Reiche elementary schools would go from 8:05 a.m. to 2:35 p.m.
On Friday, district officials proposed an alternative plan, which will be discussed at a 6 p.m. workshop Tuesday in City Council chambers in City Hall.
The proposed changes are:
• East End, Riverton, Ocean Avenue and Reiche would go from 8:05 a.m. to 2:35 p.m.
• Hall, Longfellow, Lyseth and Presumpscot would go from 8:55 a.m. to 3:25 p.m.
Lyseth parent Giovanna Bechard, who started the petition, said she was pleased with the decision.
“We were never given a proper chance to share our opinions, and it is nice to have an elected school board that is willing to work through the issue in a thoughtful manner – that is how the process is supposed to work. As a parent, I am glad to see that our voices matter,” Bechard said.
Board Chairwoman Sarah Thompson said the alternative times still allowed some schools to have an earlier start, for special programs, while addressing concerns that 7:45 a.m. was too early at other schools.
“We listened, we’ll take a look again and see what, if anything, we can do,” she said. “This is the best we can do based upon our fleet. We only have so many buses and so many drivers.”
In addition to Tuesday’s workshop, a public hearing will be held at 6 p.m. April 28 at Lincoln Middle School. The board would vote on any changes at its regular meeting on May 5.
Changes to the middle school and high school schedules will not be considered, officials said.
Superintendent Emmanuel Caulk said he supported reopening the discussion.
“It’s good to have a deliberative process and come up with a thoughtful response to all the feedback,” Caulk said. “This is an opportune time to do that because these schedule changes won’t start until next fall.”
Also Tuesday, the board will vote on how to make up snow days. Caulk has proposed that students stay in school for four extra days, getting out on Friday, June 19.
The district had six snow days this year, but the 180-day calendar is longer than the state minimum of 175 instruction days, allowing some flexibility in making up all snow days.
Students were originally scheduled to have their last day on Monday, June 15.
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