August 2007 Superintendents Corner

August 8th, 2007 · 23 Comments
2007 Blogs

Superintendent’s Corner
August 2007

As part of teacher contract negotiations during the school year, five (5) minutes were added to the school day. In reviewing the start and end times for teachers and students over the summer, the administration collectively looked at making adjustments at all levels in order to better meet the educational needs of the students.

The chart below outlines the old start and end times for teachers and students. You can see that 15 minutes, on average, have been added to each building level with the high school seeing the greatest increase, 17 minutes. The adjustments in time will greatly impact and increase the instructional time that the students will receive during the course of the school day, as well as the school year and over the lifetime of the student’s attendance in the district.


	Teacher Start Time	Teacher End Time	Student Start Time	Student End Time
Baugher Elementary	7:35 AM	3:10 PM	8:10 AM	2:55 PM
(Previous Years)	7:35 AM	3:05 PM	8:15 AM	2:45 PM


Montandon Elementary	7:35 AM	3:10 PM	7:40 AM	2:25 PM
(Previous Years)	7:30 AM	3:00 PM	8:00 AM	2:30 PM


White Deer Elementary	7:35 AM	3:10 PM	7:55 AM	2:40 PM
(Previous Years)	7:30 AM	3:00 PM	7:45 AM	2:15 PM


Milton Middle School	7:45 AM	3:20 PM	7:57 AM	3:16 PM
(Previous Years)	7:50 AM	3:20 PM	8:08 AM	3:12 PM


Milton High School	7:45 AM	3:20 PM	7:57 AM	3:16 PM
(Previous Years)	7:50 AM	3:20 PM	8:10 AM	3:12 PM

One of the other buildings that will see the biggest adjustment will be Montandon Elementary School. Their start and end times have been shuffled greatly. The idea behind this was to impact the building with the least amount of students. In previous years, White Deer Elementary started the earliest and dismissed the earliest. This year, it will be Montandon Elementary with an adjustment of a student start time moving to 7:40 (back from 8:00) and an end time of 2:25 instead of 2:30.

I know these adjustments, overall, will cause changes on the home front with respect to sitters, bus times and a variety of other things. But, once again, the purpose is to have more instructional time for students.

If we take a look at the number of minutes that will be increased within all five (5) district buildings, the average increase is 15.4 minutes per day. If you take that figure times 180 days, it is 2,772 minutes. Across the district, the average day is seven (7) hours. So, 46 hours and 12 minutes will be gained by this slight adjustment of the student schedule over the course of the school year. If we figure that out using a seven hour day, that is six and one-half (6 ½) days of instruction gained per year. If we take that number times the educational life cycle of a student for public education (13 years, K-12), that will be a gain of 84 ½ days over the child’s educational career in Milton. This is approximately an additional one-half year of instructional time gained by this adjustment.

One of the biggest things that school districts struggle with is instructional time in trying to get everything accomplished, whether it is D.A.R.E., academic curriculum, or the arts. By increasing the instructional time, we can still maintain the academics and specials that students attend during the course of the school year. This can be done without feeling that anything has to be eliminated so the district can continue to address the areas in PSSA exams in reading, writing, mathematics and beginning this year, science.

This increase in the instructional time will allow us to further concentrate on the academic areas where we are being assessed, but not eliminate any of the other worthwhile programs for our students. The result will be our continued commitment to providing opportunities to students in all areas of their lives.

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23 responses so far ↓

1 Shaney Yarger // Aug 8, 2007 at 8:20 pm

Dr Clark,

Will letters be sent to parents on the time changes at the schools? I was surprised when I just happened upon the note on the Middle School website about the time changes. Also, that note was posted in July and said that there would be busing schedules sent out with the time changes. Do you know when that will be? We are now almost two weeks out from school and the more time parents have to adjust for these changes, the easier the change will be.

Thank you,
Shaney Yarger
2 wclark // Aug 9, 2007 at 7:50 am

Letters were not sent to parents on an individual basis because the thought was we could conduct a proper media blitz that would inform the public.

A press release was sent to the local newspapers last week on the new time schedules. The time changes were announced and reviewed at the board meeting in July so the press would pick it up as well. The goal is to have the new time schedules posted when class schedules are posted later this week.

The bus schedules will be released to the newspaper by the end of the week as well. Changes could still occur in the bus schedule before the start of school due to students still enrolling into school. Traditionally we work with the local newspapers to provide a release of information such as bus schedules and classroom assignments during the second week of July.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
3 wclark // Aug 9, 2007 at 7:56 am

I should have stated they are provided the second week of August to the press. My mistake.
4 marion s. // Aug 9, 2007 at 5:30 pm

Dr. Clark
You say that information was let known to the local news papers, well what if some people don’t get the news paper? Then what? How are people suppose to know? It would have been nice to see a letter. Does that mean the buses will go earlier too?
5 Seth Reitz // Aug 9, 2007 at 9:23 pm

After reading Shaney Yarger’s post, it made me question as to whether or not the automated phone system at the school could be used to contact persons who are responsible for students in the district about the time changes.
6 Brenda Y. // Aug 10, 2007 at 5:21 pm

Dear Dr. Clark,

I am woundering why the students at Montandon have to start school at 7:40 which is 15 minutes earlier than last year and also get out at 2:25 which is only 5 minutes earlier than last year. So is that the busers that get out at that time if so then what time will the walkers get out. I am a concernd parent from Montandon.
7 wclark // Aug 10, 2007 at 9:42 pm

In order to realign the transportation of the district to meet the needs of the adjusted time, the student times at MO needed to be adjusted in order for the runs of the other busses in the district. Each building in the district had an increase in time of 15 minutes for instruction.

I will send an e-mail to Mr. Parise and ask that he post the time schedule for the walkers.
8 wclark // Aug 14, 2007 at 8:17 am

Thanks to Seth Reitz’s comment, today Aug. 14th using Parent Connect a phone message will go out to all parents on the new start and end times for each district building.

A Back to School Insert that will be placed in the local newspapers will also contain information on the new start and end times.
9 Tracy Hower // Aug 15, 2007 at 2:44 pm

Thank you for the automated phone call announcing the new school schedules. This is much improved communication and it is appreciated!
10 Correne Gray // Aug 15, 2007 at 5:00 pm

Congrats to Mr. Reitz, the phone call was a great idea. It was helpful for those who don’t get the newpaper.
11 Brenda Y. // Aug 15, 2007 at 8:24 pm

Dr. Clark,

Thank-You for the automated phone call about the new start and end times for the school year. I was also woundering if you were going to put an article in the newspapers about the classes also for the students.
12 wclark // Aug 16, 2007 at 7:29 am

An article that outlined the new times was in yesterday’s Standard Journal. Since the Parent Connect was used for the first time to make the calls, we found out some growing pains of using the system.
13 Jo-Ellen Fedder // Aug 16, 2007 at 9:07 am

Congrats to Seth for the idea of using the phone system. I was very concerned about parents who do not get the newspapers and we have ALOT of families in the district who can not afford the internet let alone a newspaper. My question is this, I saw an MASD phone number on our caller ID last evening and was wondering why, so I assume it was the automated system. Will the system let messages on answering machines for parents who work?

Thanks,
Jo-Ellen Chappell Fedder
14 wclark // Aug 16, 2007 at 9:24 am

Yes it will leave a mesage on the answering machine.
15 Diane Hartley // Aug 20, 2007 at 12:50 pm

Dr. Clark,

Our family never rec’d a phone call from the automated phone system. Our children’s emergency contacts were informed of the change. My worry is if you need to use the phone system in the future, will we get a phone call at home or will it go to our emergency contacts and the grandparents (emergency contact) may not be home. I understand it will go on their machine but, if my child is not in school I want to know that morning. Maybe this is one of the growing pains. Thanks.
16 Shaney Yarger // Aug 20, 2007 at 8:27 pm

Dr Clark,

My family also did not receive a phone call from the automated system. I have two children in the Middle School, so I expected to have at least one call. Also, did the school calendars go out? We did not receive any of those, either.

Shaney Yarger
17 wclark // Aug 21, 2007 at 7:24 am

Since it was first time Parent Connect was used to make massive calls, we noticed that certain options must be used to determine that calls are made to the appropriate party. In the future, we will make sure that this happens.

School calendars were taken to the post office yesterday for delivery.
18 Shaney Yarger // Aug 21, 2007 at 8:56 pm

Thanks for all of your efforts with the Parent Connect. I think it will be a great system in the future.
19 tzpj // Sep 2, 2007 at 2:19 am

I work, I do not get off work in tell 12:30 sundays. Also Mnday-Friday in tell 12 mid-night. Now I need to get up around 6:30 to get to school. We the Students and Parent’s should take a vote on the new times. Also when school lets out I need to be at work by 3:30 p.m. I’m late. “I say let the 11th and 12th grade out early only if they drive to school, if you can do that because I work everyday but Saturdays.”

Thank you,

The Student
20 [BLOCKED BY STBV] Marion Jones // Sep 3, 2007 at 2:49 am

Marion Jones…

I Googled for something completely different, but found your page…and have to say thanks. nice read….
21 wclark // Sep 10, 2007 at 10:13 am

I appreciate your comments. We cannot change the time for a couple of grades levels. The times need to be consistent due to bus transportation to get all 2,358 students to and from school.
22 Online Journals Guide // Oct 8, 2007 at 9:30 pm

Online Journals Guide…

I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…
23 [BLOCKED BY STBV] brenda song pic // Jan 10, 2008 at 5:18 pm

brenda song pic…

Thanks for the nice read, keep up the interesting posts…..