When classes begin Wednesday, Sept. 9, in the Highline School District, there will be one sure topic of conversation as parents drop off or pick up their children.
The district's new school calendar - released just a couple of weeks ago- has caused some concern in the parenting community, primarily because it may present a challenge for parents looking for child care on Fridays.
The new district calendar calls for dismissal 90 minutes early on most Fridays at all Highline schools this year. The early Friday dismissals will replace the half-day Wednesday schedule and most of the non-student "waiver" days Highline has had in past years.
Overall, the amount of time students will spend out of the classroom will be about the same.
According to district spokeswoman Catherine Carbone Rogers, after students are dismissed on Fridays, teachers will use the time for training, professional development, and collaboration.
The 90-minute sessions, called Professional Collaboration Time (PCT), will include activities such as learning new and better ways to deliver instruction, analyzing student work together, and sharing ideas and plans that will improve student performance, according to district staffers.
"The whole point of this is to improve quality of instruction," Rogers said. "Research shows a high-quality instructor is the most critical way to improve achievement."
Rogers said families of half-day kindergarteners will be mostly affected by the change. Morning and afternoon classes will alternative attending school every other Friday
But parent Linda Porter said the new calendar will adversely impact single, working moms like herself. Porter recently adopted her grandson since his parents lost their parental rights. She and her sister co-parent four kids between then, and the change will hit them hard because of lack of daycare options on Fridays.
Porter said parents will now have to scramble to find child care, and hearing about the calendar change in late August was unacceptable.
"I try hard in organizing my life to be as proactive as possible. It's something I have to do as a single, working mother. So, this situation would be hard enough without the fact that we just heard about it in late August," she said.
Rogers said the change was made after a long period of consultation with parents and the community.
"We recognize that shortened school days impact families and parents' work schedules. The school district surveyed parents and teachers, and the majority preferred a weekly early release of less than two hours, versus a less frequent but longer block of time as we have had in the past," she said.
Parent Kari Kesler has five kids, and she said she was surprised by the new schedule. However, she said, once she overcame her initial surprise, she realized the calendar will work well for her.
"I thought about it and realized that if you leave early for the weekend, it is on a Friday. So this will make it easier to get out of town," she said. "I am not left with all of these whole days randomly scheduled, where I am trying to cover. This is really the least disruptive," she said.
Kesler said a lot of parents will be surprised, because the calendar was posted earlier in the summer. Then, she said, the calendar was taken down and put back up with the change made.
"I think the process could have been better," she said. "But I am beginning to get used to the idea. I think a little dependability in the schedule could be nice."
Stacie Hawkins, president of the Highline Education Association and a 4th grade teacher said the new calendar will really be best for students.
"It may seem like more time, but we had plenty of early dismissals last year," she said. "This was partially a response to the community that needed more consistent, regular times. They wanted to plan their schedules. It was difficult for families to schedule their daycare."
Hawkins said the ever-controversial calendar setting has become a huge challenge for school districts today, to a large degree, because of the changing nature of education.
"Educators' jobs today are unique. During the time we are teaching students, no other work gets done. Students demand the full attention of their teachers for the vast majority of the day and it leaves only hours after school to assess students' needs. This is not your father's education," she said.
Hawkins said teachers are expected today to have a plan for every student that is not meeting standards. Every student deserves individual attention but this requires much more time. In the old days, she said, teachers planned for the entire class.
Nowadays it is much more individualized. And, she said, there are unacceptable gaps in achievement and high dropout rates.
Much of this could be addressed with more time for preparation, she said.
Hawkins does admit that the calendar came out a little late. She said a joint task force developed recommendations after talking to the school board, community, and other districts.
"In this type of work where you are gathering information and talking to people it ends up taking longer than you expect," she said. "We started this in October. We ended up recommending this plan in May. Then that team needed to move it forward. "
Both Hawkins and Rogers said that many other districts have implemented early dismissals or late arrivals. Renton and Tukwila and Kent are all doing similar schedules.
"I feel sympathy for the families that are affected by the change," said Rogers. "Still, if we didn't think this thing benefited kids, we wouldn't do it."
The first early release day is set for Friday, September 18.