Board Eyes Longer School Day for York Students

By Amber Lester Tuesday, May 25, 2010

York County students could be spending more time in class in the 2011-12 school year.

The York County School Board will decide at a June 7 work session whether to lengthen the division’s school days. York County schoolchildren spend the least amount of time in class in the area, and their days are shorter than the state average.

In a presentation before the school board, Chief Academic Officer Lucia Sebastian recommended 10 minutes be added to the elementary school day and 12 to 15 minutes be added to the middle and high school days.

The change would be in response to a recommendation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. In March 2007, the association’s accreditation team suggested the school examine the adequacy of its instructional time. With its current schedule, York County meets the Virginia Department of Education’s requirements that all schools have a minimum of 990 hours of instruction and high school credit-bearing classes clock 140 hours.

In August, a survey by the Virginia Association of School Superintendents revealed York has a shorter school day than most divisions in the state. The survey, which tallied results from 88 of the state’s 132 divisions, found the average school day for elementary students to be six hours and 38 minutes; for middle school students to be six hours and 34 minutes; and for high school students to be six hours and 45 minutes.

In York County, elementary school students spend six hours and 26 minutes at school, while middle and high school students spend six hours and 27 minutes at school. In the rest of the area, school days are between 13 and 17 minutes longer. At Monday’s meeting, educators emphasized that time could be enough to answer one more question, explore one more lesson or plan one extra activity.

If the school board approves the proposed change, students would log an additional 45 hours at the elementary level, 66 hours at the middle school level and 72 hours at the high school level over the school year.

In its discussions, the administration met with principals and a scheduling expert to get feedback and gauge how lengthening the day would affect instructional time. The proposed change would lengthen teacher/student contact time, but would not affect the contractual workday for staff members.

The administration would like to have all of the next school year to plan for the longer days, tackling issues such as the start and end times for all schools, the division- and school-level parameters for use of time, bell schedules for secondary schools, conclusion of schedule committee work for high schools and any other necessary changes. The High School Schedule Committee will also make a recommendation for the best scheduling format for high schools (i.e. whether to keep the current seven class model, move to an eight class model or switch to a four-by-four class model).

Magruder Elementary Principal Mary Ahearn said school leaders want to explore whether the proposed change would reduce the workload for teachers. She said the most important thing was to protect teacher-planning periods, which can often be interrupted by meetings.

Board member Barbara Haywood indicated the change is not only necessary, but wondered if 15, not 10, minutes could be added to the elementary school day to meet the state average. “We in York County have prided ourselves for being at or above the state average for a lot of things,” she said. “What would it take to get to state average on this?”

Sebastian said that having the full year for planning would help the administration assess how instruction time will be affected. “We want to be sure planning time is protected,” she said.