Sun, Nov 22 2009
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Lawmaker moves to lengthen school break By AMBER DILLEYGlasgow Daily Times “Some people have said ‘Well, I don’t know if a child’s concentration level can put up with 45 more minutes each day,’” Bell said. “But when you start breaking that down, it’s only about seven minutes more per class. I don’t think that’s going to have an adverse effect on a child, especially when they have a five-minute break between classes and have time to recoup. You could also use that extra time during the lunch period or playground time.”
Some parents support the idea of children starting school later in the school year, even if it means children will have to be in class 45 minutes longer each day. “I’m all for it,” said Maggie Mosley, a South Green Elementary parent. “It would be a wonderful idea.” Mosley pointed out that school starts at the hottest time of the year. And having a later start date, she said, would mean children would have a longer summer. Mosley, a stay-at-home mom, isn’t faced with the cost of daycare when school’s out. Cindy Green, who has two school-age children, said a change in the school calendar would mean she would have to pay for three additional weeks of baby-sitters for her kids. “A longer school day doesn’t bother me, but (the longer summer break) would cost me three more weeks of daycare,” Green said. “I don’t assume it would upset any teachers because that would give them three more weeks off during the summer, but then, they do have to work longer hours during the year.” Green said when she first heard of the bill, she thought the 20 days would be added on to the end of the school year. “I thought they would move the summer end date back and that’s good, because the pool isn’t even open when the kids get out now. Later in the year, they could go ahead and do summer things. Maybe that’s what they should do instead of longer days,” Green said. Bell said another big issue that’s been brought up is the CATS testing. “But because they have 45 minutes extra each day, the way we figured it out, they would only have four hours less instructional time than the students who started 20 days earlier. So there’s pretty much no difference in instructional time,” Bell said. He said the bill could also be beneficial to rural school districts. “In those areas, you have more detrimental weather, more rural roads,” Bell said. “When they’re missing days because of winter weather ... if you have the ability to go longer during the day, you’re going to make up that time quicker, versus having to quit at a certain time and extend the school year to make up for that.” Bell said an additional 20 days of vacation in the summer would allow children to spend more time with their families and would benefit the state as well. “If we’re able to boost tourism within the state, that’s not only beneficial to the students, but to the state,” he said. “We want this situation to be where children have the ability to spend more time with their families.” He said members of the state fair board said that after schools instituted an early August start date, attendance at the fair dropped by 75,000 each year. 
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