STOP the School Start Time Carousel...please!

The school start time debate (the SST Carousel) has once again yawned itself awake.  Its existence makes me want to crawl back under the covers, and, I doubt that I am alone in my frustration with this Change vs, No Change argument.

This brouhaha has been burdening the SST Carousel horses and causing arguments, astonished “Not again!” eye rolls, as well as AFER-Apathy From Eternal Repetition- for eighteen lo-o-o-ng years.  As I said in my April 25, 2012 Herndon Patch post, “Are You Kidding Me?” ‘Please! Just…make…a…DECISION!’

Two years and nine months ago when I officially jumped on the SST Carousel which has been circling the FCPS community since 1996, and which proved to be a factor in my decision to retire from teaching two years early, a reader, Mike, commented, “I see someone dragged out the dead horse, and is handing out sticks again.”

Unfortunately, Mike, more sticks are popping up, because the school board has not made a DECISION.  T.Rees Shapiro wrote a pre-School Board meeting article in The Washington Post Monday 1/13/2014, “Fairfax officials to hear study update on teen sleep and school start times”.  In it he mentioned that this $143,000 study, which was commissioned in April 2013, would be a part of the School Board’s work session that afternoon.

Yesterday evening, Channel 4 News, ran a spot by Julie Carey, “Fairfax Co. Schools Mull Over Start Times,”where, once again, listeners heard about how complicated this issue is and about how the board needs more community feedback.

T.Rees Shapiro followed his earlier article with a post-school board meeting story, "Fairfax school start times effort slows," later yesterday. He wrote, "But several school board members said they were disappointed by the slow progress of the study and questioned whether any changes to the bell schedule could be made before September."

I probably haven't rolled out of bed and concussed myself when I say, "I imagine hundreds of thousands of FCPS citizens are disappointed, too." Whether they care passionately about the pro or con arguments for changing the school start times or not, I surmise that most people just want a DECISION. 

Between 1979-1986, FCPS high schools changed their start times from 8:00- 8:15 to 7:40. While Dr. Robert Spillane was the superintendent, the Fairfax County school board rolled the time back to 7:30 (1987) and then to 7:20 (1996). In the succeeding eighteen years since the start time was backed up to 7:20, FCPS

• has experienced three more superintendents:  Dr. Daniel Domenech (1997-2004), Dr. Jack Dale (2004-2013) and beginning in 2013, Dr. Nancy Garza.
• has jumped in enrollment from approximately 152,000 to 184,625 students
• has financed multiple proposals/studies researching this topic.

Some of the students who graduated in 1996, eighteen years ago, feasibly have children who are now  students, anywhere from freshmen to seniors in FCPS high schools.  Yes, a new generation now rides the school SST Carousel, circling around and around as they await a DECISION.

My mind boggles with thoughts and images of where we would be with our lives, jobs, our marriages, and our children if we took eighteen years to make a decision that affected so many people.

Fact: not everyone will be satisfied with the decision.

Fact: both sides will have to choose to agree to disagree on various aspects of this issue.

Fact: Compromises will occur.

Numerous vital issues exist for our schools, our teachers and our students. Can we just make a DECISION to agree on a solution to this debate?  The SST Carousel is history, andneeds to grind to a halt.

Until next week,

Connie

http://www.teachitwrite.blogspot.com/

Post Links:

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Fairfax-Co-Schools-Mull-Over-Start-Times-240012831.html 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/fairfax-school-start-times-effort-slows/2014/01/13/028fc042-7c78-11e3-9556-4a4bf7bcbd84_story.html