Later Start of School Day Angers Parents

By Carl Glassman
JULY 3, 2006

What a difference 20 minutes makes.

That was the message sent by a group of angry P.S. 234 parents last month after it was announced that starting in September the school day will begin at 8:50 a.m. rather than the usual time of 8:30.

Speaking out at a heated PTA meeting, parents protested the decision by teachers to start the school day later, which they said would make it difficult for many parents to get to work on time or to help with reading and other morning classroom activities.

The time change was an adjustment in the “extended day” program for children who receive extra help in small groups outside of regular school hours. The program, mandated by the Department of Education and negotiated with the United Federation of Teachers, began in February. It requires those students to receive supplementary help for an extra 37 and one-half minutes, four days a week.

The P.S. 234 teachers, exercising an option in their union contract, voted more than three-to-one to start the extended day program before the regular school day starts, rather than after it ends. Their first choice, to run the program from 8:10 to 8:40 a.m., was rejected as too short by the Department of Education.
Some parents saw the change as an assault on the connection they feel to the school and to each other.

“The cherished rite of P.S. 234 is being in the yard at drop off,” said Liz Berger, the mother of two children in the school. “It’s one of the ways the school creates community, and to take that away from large groups of parents is a shame.”
Some parents also questioned how children who have to be dropped off earlier will spend the extra time.

Fabienne Laraque envisioned children “sitting in a cold yard that doesn’t even have a tree, with nothing to do for 20 minutes in the morning. The teachers didn’t think much about the kids who are going to be waiting outside.”
The teachers argued that the children are worn out at the end of the day and concentrate better in the morning.

“We saw kids were exhausted and not able to concentrate at the end of the day. That was number one,” said Francine Cornelius, P.S. 234’s computer teacher and the UFT chapter leader at the school. “Then we said, ‘We’re exhausted. We’re tired.’”

Cornelius said that parents of children in the extended day after-school program had complained that it was hard to arrange activities after school and that clubs were ending too late.

Teachers at P.S. 150 and P.S. 89 also voted to move their extended day programs to the morning, but with no public outcry.

“Not a whisper,” said Liz Papas, co-president of the PTA at P.S. 89, where the day will start at 8:50 a.m. and the extended day will begin at 8 a.m. (P.S. 234 teachers rejected starting the day at 8 a.m. because it would create further hardship for those with long commutes, Cornelius said.)

At P.S. 150, there was concern about stigmatizing children who have to stay after school, said the principal, Maggie Sienna. “When their classmates are going to lessons and play dates and they’re staying back at school, it’s hard on the them,” she said.

Meanwhile, Kevin Doherty, president of the P.S. 234 PTA, received about 100 e-mails reacting to the schedule change. “At the end of the day,” he said, “the real challenge is to find solutions to keep parents engaged and kids stimulated early in morning.” He said he hoped that before-school activities could be added to keep early arrivers busy.

As for parents who now feel left out of the school’s morning activities, Cornelius said that there will be “new ways” for them to be involved. “They need to trust us, not fight us,” she said.