Parkway Students Could See Longer School Days and Later Start Times

The is considering later start and end times for middle school, longer elementary days and full-day kindergarten. If the proposed changes are approved, they could take effect by the next school year at an estimaged yearly cost of $2.65 million.

The changes are part of the "Project Parkway" plan underway from 2011 to 2016, and would affect all Parkway grade schools including , and elementary schools.

To date, Parkway middle schools begin at 7:25 a.m., followed by high schools at 8 a.m. and most elementary schools between 8:30 and 9 a.m.

Parkway district representatives said parents and teachers have expressed concern over the early start time for middle school students. In a written media statement, the district cites multiple studies of sleep patterns in middle school age children and said a task force concluded that a later start time would be beneficial to overall health and academic success.

The district's proposed solution is to start middle schools an hour later and it's an idea supported by most principals and parents.

"I do believe that it's best that middle school students start later than 7:25," said Principal Chelsea Watson. "If you spend time in a middle school and you watch the kids you will see that they wake up a couple of hours into their day and are more engaged and alert during their learning experiences between 8:30 and 9 a.m."

Parents voice mixed concerns

Watson said most of the feedback she's received from parents has been positive.

Amy Alexander has a child in seventh grade at Southwest Middle School and thinks the time change is necessary. "I'm glad about it. I've gone through it with two other children and this is my third. It's way too early. I'm also a teacher and developmentally, it's way too early for middle school, in my opinion," Alexander said. 

Some parents agree that the additional sleep in the morning will help students, but are concerned with the school days going later into the afternoon.

"It would help us in the morning, but that just makes the evening longer," Mandi McKay explained. She has a sixth-grader at Southwest Middle School. "It moves sporting events back an hour. It's already hard enough to fit in homework, basketball, dinner and get to bed by nine."   

The school board is also considering adding 20 minutes to the elementary school day which would mean all schools would have equal instructional time of six hours and 55 minutes. District officials said in a release that the additional 20 minutes per day equals roughly 10 days of instruction over the course of the school year.

Maria Soto has five kids in the Parkway School District, including two at .

She supports the longer days in part because of time lost due to parent-teacher conferences and professional improvement days, as well as snow days.

"Those are days we don't make up and that's time lost. It's a benefit to kids definitely," Soto said.

She hopes the additional time will also help students in areas other than academics. She said that particularly at the elementary level, students don't have enough time to eat during the day. Soto said lunch is rushed and that's not good for the kids.

Staci Minor, whose 10-year-old son Patrick is in fourth grade at Wren Hollow Elementary, was ambivalent about the longer days.

"He gets home at four already," Minor said. "We need that extra time for him to get home, relax, get a snack, eat dinner and get his homework done. But in a way, it would be good for them to get that extra help they need."

Feeling out alternatives

Another change the district is considering is a full-day, tuition-free, kindergarten for all students. Parkway presently offers optional full-day kindergarten at a cost of $3,520 to parents, which would become free under the third proposal.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's a no-brainer," said Principal Kathy Cain, noting that Parkway is one of six districts in the St. Louis area that do not offer full-day kindergarten. 

Cain said many of the district's parents work, but cannot afford the current full-day cost and often times children are put into other programs that do not support the Parkway curriculum. "This is affording all children and even playing field when they start school."

Cain said it's a disadvantage when half of the kids have an entire school day to process new information and the other half do not. "What we're seeing up to second grade is that those kids who did not receive full-day are often the ones who need that additional support in reading and math," Cain explained.

In a news release, the district said research indicates a substantial benefit to full-day kindergarten. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recommends full-day kindergarten and district officials said a recent survey of Roughly 80 percent of the Parkway parents who were polled said they supported a full-day, while elementary principals unanimously endorsed it.

In addition, district officials said kindergarten teachers expressed concern over the time constraints of a half-day compared to a full-day program. They said funding is available within the current budget for the estimaged $2.65 million cost through a re-prioritization process.

The program would not be mandatory. Busses, however, would no longer run on a full-day schedule. This is expected to to reduce district transportation costs between $200,000 to $400,000 per year, according to the district.

"These proposed changes represent a lot of hard work by hundreds of Parkway community members who volunteered to help through Project Parkway," said Interim Superintendent Don Senti in a news release. "They still have a lot of work to do to develop our strategic plan, but these recommendations are a great first start because they make sense for kids."

The school board is scheduled to vote on full-day kindergarten at its Jan. 12 meeting. The length of the elementary school day and middle school start and end times are set to be voted on at the Feb. 9 meeting. Both meetings begin at 7:30 p.m. at Parkway Central Middle School, located at 471 N. Woods Mill Road in Chesterfield.

For more information, including Project Parkway task force reports and recommendations, go to www.parkwayschools.net and click on "Project Parkway."