Attleboro Parents Voice Concerns Over Longer Days

The school day in all of Attleboro’s elementary schools was extended by 20 minutes this year and many parents have taken issue with how late their children are coming home and how long they are on the bus.

Leanne Isabella is a parent of a first grader and said her child often does not get home from school until after 4 p.m. She said it is dark when he comes home and that the late drop off makes it difficult to participate in extracurricular after school activities.

“More time on task makes it harder for them to just be kids,” Isabella told school committee members during Monday night's school committee meeting.

Lorie Brewster, a parent of two children at agreed and said her children had enjoyed school until this year. This year she said her children are overtired and stressed.

“There is no downtime,” Brewster said.

Brewster is part of a group of parents who started an to support changing the time back to the 20 minute shorter day. She said they have approximately 80 signatures in support of the change.

Nancy Lamouthe, a parent of four children in the district, two of which are in elementary school, took a different stance on the issue and spoke in support of the longer day.

“I take great confidence that our school officials have not made this decision blindly,” said Lamouthe. “In the grand scheme of things I am happier with the time adjustment."

Why? Accoding to Lamouthe, students need more time in school in order to  continue to be competitive.

Regarding the issues with extracurricular activities, Lamouthe said that school work should always come first, but also said her children are very involved with after school activities and they have made adjustments to make things work.

Brewster and Isabella also said they had concerns with safety because of the students coming home in the dark, but Lamouthe believed that this was a temporary issue.

“In 10 days it’ll be light again,” Lamouthe said .

New School Year Calendar

Superintendent Pia Durkin presented a draft of the calendars for the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school years with both school years starting prior to Labor Day. In the proposed calendars school would start on August 29 in 2012 and August 28 in 2013. School would end on June 11 for preschool, June 12 for Kindergarten, and June 17 for high schools in 2013 and 2014.

Both calendars have been approved by the AEA and paraprofessional union.

“We need those school days to make sure our children do achieve. We don’t need them at the end of June,” said Superintendent Pia Durkin.

Durkin said they need the instruction prior to MCAS testing and while the students are at their most attentive.

“I think the pre-Labor Day start is what our educators want,” said Committee Member Michael Levinson.

Mike Tyler and Barbara Craw, both newly elected members to school committee, asked the current committee not to vote on this item tonight and save it for the new committee since there was such a large turnover, with six new members ready to join the nine member committee.

“I think the people who it affects should be the ones to make the decision,” said Bob Hill, who was in favor of waiting for the new committee to vote.

Levinson said waiting for the new committee would run into the problem they had last year with people complaining that they had already made vacation plans.

“People were expecting us to have the calendars done in November,” Chariman Ray DiCiaccio said.

Brenda Furtado made a charter objection to stop the discussion. The 40-minute recess was used to figure the reason for the charter objection. Her objection was determined to be out of order because a motion was not on the floor. Bob Hill then made a motion to approve the calendars and Furtado made a second, appropriate charter objection which postponed the motion for at least one week.

The committee then voted 5-3, with Furtado, Hill and Jim Stors opposed and Teri Enegren absent, to hold a special meeting on Dec. 19 to resolve the issue.

School Committee Notes:

• Voted to accept the donation of new dictionaries for all third grade students from the Elks Club.
• Voted to accept the donation of $50 for use at Briggs and $50 for use at Michael’s for supplies for from the Sturdy Memorial Hospital Sink Sense Poster Contest because Ms. William’s fourth grade class placed second in the competition.
• Voted to accept the donation of $200 per school library from the Rebecka Lynn Whitefield Foundation to purchase books in her memory.
• Approve the request from to declare books as surplus available for donation.
• Voted 6-2, Stors and Furtado opposed and Enegren absent, to approve an interim District Business Manager due to the pending vacancy in February 2012 following Marc Furtado’s departure on February 8. David King, who held a previous interim business manager position in Watertown this year. He also has 26 years of experience in the position at the Waltham District. Will work three days a week, being on call the other two days. He is not interested in the full time position and will work with Furtado through January and February. His rate of pay will be $625 per day, a total of $45,000 to be paid with $2,000 of EdJobs grant money and $43,000 remaining of Furtado’s pay.
• Voted to authorize the Superintendent to submit a statement of interest to the Massachusetts School Building Authority for a grant or other funding for the repair of the Attleboro High School heating system and windows.
• Voted to authorize the Superintendent to submit a statement of interest to the Massachusetts School Building Authority for a grant or other funding for the repair of the KalWall at Studley Elementary School.