Parents question late start

COEUR d'ALENE - School officials in Coeur d'Alene will wait another month to decide if the school day will start later on Mondays next year.

Superintendent Hazel Bauman recommended at Monday's school board meeting that trustees delay voting on the change to school day schedules. They are being considered to give teachers time to collaborate before classes begin on Mondays.

Trustee Bill Hemenway said he favored delaying taking action, having heard many concerns from his constituents in Zone 3.

"I just think that we need to pursue a better job of getting input from the parents and letting them speak on the issue," Hemenway said.

Bauman sent a letter home to parents last week advising them that the new schedule will be in place next year, with transportation, breakfast and lunch and expanded day care options available.

The board must still approve the plan.

Monday morning class time will begin for elementary school students at 10 a.m. instead of 8:55 a.m. For the rest of the week, school will run from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., adding an extra 15 minutes to each day to make up for the instructional minutes lost on Monday mornings.

Bauman said the district received 30 parent responses to the letter sent home, 12 positive and 18 negative.

"The concerns were about transportation, child care issues, and one we haven't had a chance to address," Bauman said.

The district did not consider how a 15-minute extension to the school day would affect elementary school kids who leave school and attend Parks and Recreation programs, go to programs at the Kroc Center or to other private vendors like Funtastics.

"We need to spend some time making sure that those agencies and businesses that provide services to our children can make those adjustments," Bauman said.

Trustee Sid Fredrickson said he has fielded comments about a lack of parental involvement in the district's decision to move forward with this, and concerns that the business community was not consulted.

Fredrickson acknowledged there is no way to accommodate everyone.

"Nevertheless, I think we owe it to the patrons of the district to give them a good listen," he said.

At the middle schools, the Monday class schedule will begin at 9:10 a.m. and end at 2:40 p.m., with a 7:55 a.m. to 2:40 p.m. schedule the rest of the week.

Classes at the middle schools now begin at 8 a.m. and end at 2:30 p.m.

Lakes Magnet Middle School administrators Chris Hammons and Lana Hamilton said they've seen the benefits of collaboration this year at their school, one of three where it was piloted. Sorensen and Hayden Meadows are the other schools.

"There is so much on our plate. It's just incredible, that you just cannot reach it with the collaboration that we have after school," Hammons said.

LaDonna Beaumont, director of Concerned Businesses of North Idaho, spoke on behalf of the business community but also as a parent.

"I think I speak for a lot of parents. It's not collaboration that we have any kind of an issue with, we would encourage that kind of open discussion, especially when it comes to our kids," Beaumont said. "The concern that we have is that we've sort of been left out of the equation, both employers in our community and parents in our community."

Tamara Poelstra, another parent and longtime volunteer, said she was stunned to find friends, neighbors and co-workers who were "concerned, frustrated and even angry, but believed that their voice did not matter, especially when a letter was sent home to multiple schools stating that this policy was already approved and would be implemented next year."

Poelstra said that as working parents, they feared there might be repercussions with negative consequences for their children, "and their opinions really would not matter."

Because of her experience working with the board, Poelstra said she knows otherwise, that the trustees are concerned citizens who are willing to listen.

"Though their (the parents) concerns were many, one issue floated to the top, and is worth an answer, 'How do you make Monday mornings work if you are a working parent?'"

Poelstra said they are having a staff meeting at her office this week to discuss how to make allowances for their office manager, so she can get her son to school on Mondays next year.

"She has put in considerable effort to not put her child in day care, and now she might have to, or take a cut in pay." Poelstra said. "Either way, it's going to cost her money, let alone the inconvenience to our whole office."

Poelstra encouraged the trustees to consider the cost to employers and staffs throughout the community before deciding to move forward with late starts on Mondays.

Bauman said some parents, members of the PTA Alliance, have been included since October in discussions about the collaboration time and schedule change.

The principals were also brought into the loop, Bauman said, and were supportive of the new collaboration schedule.

"I know several of them did talk to their PTAs and put things in their newsletters," Bauman said. "Obviously that wasn't universal and I apologize for that, but we will entertain a robust dialogue between now and the first meeting in June, and make sure we have all of those concerns and questions answered."

The next regular school board meeting is June 7 at the Midtown Center.