District 15 Schedule Change Survey Available, Change.org Petition

Updated January 15 at 9:40 p.m. to reflect how different scenarios would look compared to current school schedules. 

A survey is now available to all District 15 parents who are interested in weighing in on proposed changes to the schedule for the 2013-2014 school year.

The start of the survey explains the agreement between the D15 Board of Education and the Classroom Teachers' Council was made to meet new state mandated Common Core Standards, provide for regular student performance evaluations and to gauge teacher effectiveness.

It also states the changes will allow teachers to improve their instruction methods and will decrease the need for substitute teachers that currently allow for teacher professional development time.

Four options are given in the survey as to what the most palatable schedule changes would be for parents. They include:

• Monday Late Start (40-minutes) 5-minute earlier start on T-F. (loss of one day of instructional time)
• Monday Early Release (40-minutes) 5-minute earlier start M-F. (loss of one day of instructional time)
• Wednesday Late Start (40-minutes)10 minutes earlier start M, T, Th, F.
• Wednesday Early Release (40-minutes) 10-minute earlier start M, T, Th, F.

For example, for proposed late start Wednesdays, if your child's school starts at 7:55 a.m. currently, the new start time would be 8:35 a.m., and on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, the school day would begin at 7:45 a.m., reflecting a 50 minute difference in start time comparing Wednesdays to the rest of the week.  

In all of the potential schedule changes presented by Disrict 15, Deputy Superintendent Jim Garwood said the district is working off of the current start time for all scenarios.

Pros and cons also are listed for both early start and late dismissal options within the survey.

Negatives for early start include child care issues for working parents, before school activites such as band and orchestra would have to start earlier and the loss of one day of instruction time.

Late dismissal drawbacks also include child care concerns, the loss of one day a week for athletic programs and teachers' ability to provide after school assistance, the loss of one day of instruction time and loss of flexibility for student clubs.

If you are a District 15 parent and have not yet taken this survey, it can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LateStartEarlyRelease. 

Change.org Petition

A petition also has been created at www.change.org by parent about how the schedule changes could impact not only students, but working parents.

The petition it titled: CCSD15 School Board: Listen to constituents Late Arrival/Early Dismissal: Schedule enrichment time END of the day FRIDAY. No lost instruction time!

If you are interested in learning more, the petition can be found at: http://www.change.org/petitions/ccsd15-school-board-listen-to-constituents-late-arrival-early-dismissal-schedule-enrichment-time-end-of-the-day-friday-no-lost-instruction-time. 

The District 15 Board of Education's next meeting is Wednesday, January 16 at 7 p.m. at Sundling Junior High School, 1100 N. Smith Street.