Back to the Chalk Board, School Board

Last year was my son’s first year at Roosevelt Elementary School. Great school, great year, great teacher. I was surprised to learn that he had numerous half days regularly throughout the year. Every parent I talked to about the half days thought they were harmful to the children’s education. The children had less time for learning, and working parents were in difficult straits on those days. The other night, I attended a parents’ Forum to Discuss Half Days @ Hillsborough County Schools. I am writing because I believe this is a critical time in history to be determining this issue.

Other countries, for example, Japan and France, have schooling year-round. In this way, children retain information in a continuous manner as they do not forget what they have learned over a lengthy three month summer. Indeed, the historical reason for a three month summer is because the United States was primarily an agricultural economy, and people were needed to help with farming and ranching over the summer months. Districts around the country are looking at whether school years need to be lengthened and in some cases, school is in session year-round. We want our children to have the best education possible so that the United States can continue to effectively compete in a global economy. In Florida, we want to provide the best education system to attract the best and the brightest to our great State. I believe that these are the lofty goals that the Hillsborough County School Board should be debating. We should be reviewing proposals to lengthen our school year to improve our educational system, not looking at rolling back our school week to 4 ½ days. A five day school week is a baseline which we should be improving upon, not cutting back.

Surprisingly, only one School Board member attended the meeting. While parents packed a room in Hyde Park, and while well over 1000 people have signed onto the Facebook page titled “Parents Against Half Days at Hillsborough County Schools,” the majority of the School Board did not attend. One thing that seems clear after last night’s meeting is that the parents’ voice is missing from the School Board’s decision-making process.

At the meeting, parents were told that the reason for the half days was that teachers had insufficient planning time. Parents asked numerous, pointed questions to try to illuminate the need for taking time away from our children’s education. For example, parents asked on what criteria, research or data the decision to institute half days was originally made? We asked how much planning time teachers currently have and for what they required additional planning time? Parents asked if there was any data on how the time gained from the current half days has been used by teachers? Parents inquired whether the School Board had made comparisons with the three most successful school districts in the country (which have no or very few half days per year)? It is my opinion that many of the responses given were inadequate to actually answer those questions, or in other words, to convince parents that half days are a good idea.

Whether the reason for the half days is that teachers need more planning time or that the Board is seeking to give teachers a de facto raise through shortened hours (as suggested by some parents), half days should be off the table. You do not solve one problem – either insufficient planning time or insufficient pay – by creating a much larger one: insufficient instruction time for our children and a schedule that is going in the opposite direction of excellence in education. If insufficient planning time (or insufficient teacher pay) is the problem, then the School Board must go back to the chalk board and come up with solutions that resolve those problems without compromising the future of our State, which in my view, lies in the education of our children.