The North Little Rock School District will start the school year with a new schedule of early release Wednesdays amid parent and community members' complaints.
The new schedule is to provide teachers with more lesson planning and professional development time for the year, a total of 100 minutes per week.
District board members voted at a June meeting to extend the other school days, adding 20 minutes to elementary school days, five minutes for the middle school and 15 minutes for the high school.
The new start times for the district will be 7:45 a.m. for elementary schools and 8:30 a.m. for high schools. There will not be a new start time for middle schools.
The new end times for the district will be 3 p.m. for elementary schools, 3:30 p.m. for middle schools and 4 p.m. for high schools.
Early dismissal on Wednesdays will be 1:20 p.m. for elementary schools, 1:50 p.m. for middle schools and 2:20 p.m. for high schools.
Richard Tatum, a parent and member of the Seventh Street Elementary PTA, spoke at the meeting in June citing concerns about the bus route schedule. He said he does not believe drivers will be able to keep up with the student release times being pushed closer together across the district.
Brandi Hanson, a teacher at the sixth grade campus, also voiced concerns on the impact this new schedule will have on teachers.
After the meeting in June, Alanna Tatum, a parent at Seventh Street Elementary, recalled that the district sent out email communication and posted on its Facebook page that "after-school enrichment activities" would be provided at each school on a case-by-case basis depending on how many students needed to stay later on Wednesdays.
These Facebook posts have since been replaced by new ones stating: "We have provided some additional clarity about Early Release Wednesdays. Early Release Wednesdays are meant to provide teachers and administrators with additional time to plan rigorous lessons, discuss innovative teaching strategies and review student data."
The posts also state that supervision will be provided for students who cannot be picked up by parents on Wednesday afternoons.
"They put this early release out there but they don't have more details about what it's going to look like," Tatum said. "They should work on utilizing communication with parents better."
Another issue with communication came up in June when the school board announced that the regularly scheduled meeting was canceled due to graduation, but members met anyway and voted on school uniforms.
All school board meetings must be made public knowledge per the Arkansas Department of Education regulations.
"It just seems highly dishonest," Richard Tatum said. "Why would you say the meeting was canceled but then still have it? That's problematic."
The board voted to not require school uniforms this year.
The school district will still provide buses to the Boys and Girls Club for after-school care.
Dustin Ezell, a parent of students at Crestwood Elementary and the sixth grade campus, said the early release schedule was decided on "with little teacher or parent input."
"Who did they talk to about this? Whose input did they get?" he asked. "Most families need two incomes these days, coordinating school pickup is already a challenge, adding another variable with different times for different grades puts an additional burden on parents. Especially those with kids in different schools."
Ezell also noted that many students are not equipped to be home alone for even a few hours of the day.
Laura Nick, a parent at the sixth grade campus, also recalled that the district mentioned after-school enrichment activities would be provided.
She said this new early release schedule will cause a "ripple effect" across the ecosystem of the community.
"With less than a week before school starts, the district has no plan for what those students will do who have to stay on campus if their parents can't pick them up in the middle of the workday, in the middle of the work week," Nick said.
The board made this decision without a plan in place for after-school care for students, she added, but board member Natalie Wankum told her students would be "safe, dry and fed."
As incoming president of the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, Nick is concerned about letting her employees take off early every Wednesday to pick up their children in the school district.
"It is likely that time off from work will take a toll on their performance at work," she added. "Businesses are just now returning to normalcy from covid, where I have witnessed parents balance the challenges of inconsistent schedules and the negative impact it has had."
Nick also noted that the district finally acknowledged its problem with communicating crucial information to parents and teachers. Superintendent Greg Pilewski brought forward a plan to partner with a public relations firm in Washington, D.C., Woodberry Associates.
Pilewski proposed to allocate $75,000 over six months to hire the firm at a recent board meeting; members declined to vote until they received more information about the firm.
"There are many talented PR agencies and public affairs professionals based in central Arkansas who have incredibly talented teams," Nick said. "Yet, the firm the board looks to endorse is 1,000 miles away from North Little Rock. I wonder ... does that firm know what makes Dogtown tick?"
Pilewski did mention at a board meeting on Aug. 3 that he did consider other public relations firms in the state.
Kristina Gulley, a member of the community advisory board for Seventh Street Elementary, said the focus should not be on a public relations firm, but rather on "educating students and the schools with F's, raising those scores."
"That $75,000 could be used to recruit retired educators or college students who are in their senior year doing internships, towards to tutoring at those schools, where the kids need the help," she added. "We shouldn't be using $75,000 of public money, going out of state hiring a public relations firm."
Gulley also mentioned how desperately students at Seventh Street and other elementary schools need more paraprofessionals.
Paras provide students with special needs individual attention and education in the classroom so lead teachers can properly teach their other students.