Middle School Early Release Days to go Later, Include Lunch

Students at Parker and Coolidge Middle Schools can look forward to something new this year on early release days: lunch.

Both schools this year will increase its number of early release days from eight to 12, but each day will also run later. Previously, the schools dismissed students at 11:30 a.m. after they attended a partial class schedule. This year, according to Coolidge and Parker principals Craig Martin and Doug Lyons, early release days will end at 1 p.m. after a full schedule – including lunch – with shortened classes.

Under the old system, Lyons said, the middle schools would release a collective 1,000 teens and pre-teens before noon. About half of them would go home or to a friend's house.

"The other half would go downtown for lunch," Lyons said.

He said that made parents concerned about their children's safety. While downtown Reading is generally safe, the children were still without supervision.

Lyons said the school district polled nearly 500 middle school parents, who overwhelmingly said they supported changing the early release model.

In recent years, Reading Memorial High School swapped early release days for late-entry days, delaying the start of school to make time in the morning for teachers' professional development.

The high school will this year abandon that plan, said RMHS principal Ellie Freedman, because it caused unintended and unexpected stress.

Lyons said the late entry model wouldn't work for middle schools because it would challenge parents to find supervision for their children between the time the adults left for work and the children left for school.

The new model also offers benefits for the schools' faculties. Lyons said the new plan will allow teachers more frequent opportunities for professional development, and more professional development time overall. Each early release day coincides with a regularly scheduled faculty meeting, and the middle and high schools have coordinated overlapping early release schedules to allow for inter-faculty meetings. Lyons said those meetings will focus on how Reading students transition from middle school to high school.

Martin and Lyons added that they view the new early release schedule as a pilot plan.

"I think it has potential," Lyons said. "We're looking to see how it works this year."

Lyons said the middle schools will assess the plan at mid year and in June.