Amid teacher and parent concerns about extending the school day in the North Little Rock School District, board members voted on Thursday to add 20 minutes to elementary school days, five minutes to middle school days and 15 minutes to high school days.
The new start times for the district will be 7:45 a.m. for elementary schools, no change for middle schools and 8:30 a.m. for high schools.
The new end times for the district will be 3 p.m. for elementary schools, 3:30 p.m. for middle schools and 4:00 p.m. for high schools.
This will allow for an early dismissal on Wednesdays starting at 1:20 p.m. for elementary schools, 1:50 p.m. for middle schools and 2:20 p.m. for high schools.
The early dismissal days will be focused on project-based learning and give teachers an opportunity to collaborate in professional learning communities after student dismissal.
Richard Tatum, a parent on the Seventh Street Elementary PTA, spoke at the board meeting 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.
Currently, bus drivers pick up and drop off students at the elementary schools first, then the middle schools and finish with the high schools.
Superintendent Greg Pilewski said the district is always looking for more bus drivers to help lessen possible pick-up delays for students, but he does not think extending the school day will create more possibility for this to happen.
Brandi Hanson, a teacher at the sixth grade campus, said even small changes can have a large impact on a teacher's ability to be effective and efficient during the school day.
"One of my concerns is that during the development of the calendars and sending out calendar surveys and giving information about the calendars, I don't feel like this information was presented as transparently as it could have been that having an early release schedule would require changing the instructional minutes and changing the length of the school day," Hanson added.
Cutting a few minutes from special classes and recess will take up time that would normally be used to clean up and set up for students the next day, she explained.
"Making that instructional time has a large impact on the day-to-day work of my students' teachers," Hanson said. "And I have concerns about how that will impact their ability to provide good instruction without volunteering more of their personal time to [do what] they need to get done on a day-to-day basis."
The new instructional times for elementary schools in the district include 15 more minutes for math, five more minutes for science and social studies and 20 more minutes for recess.