Introduction:  The following questions were asked at a public meeting on November 29, 2006 regarding the Expanded Learning Time planning process.  A summary of questions and responses follows from that meeting.  As additional meetings are held, we will add questions and comments to this webpage.

QUESTION:  What is the state’s incentive for asking people to do this?

ANSWER:  Education researchers throughout the country have long been concerned about the length of the typical American school day, which was designed so that children would be home in time to complete chores on the family farm.  With so many urgent academic pressures today, the issue is becoming of even greater concern.  Funding and time constraints also threaten “whole child” programs like art and music, and expanding the school day would give us more time to safeguard such programs.

QUESTION: What academic benefit is there for my child to watch “The Lord of the Rings” during school?

ANSWER: If you have that question as a parent, you should ask your child’s teacher that precise question.  If you are not happy with the answer, you should then approach the building principal, and ultimately the School Committee.

QUESTION: My daughter already has a full block of physical education a day.  Why isn’t she getting more academic opportunities during our existing school day?

ANSWER:  At this time, the low number of teachers at the high school makes scheduling courses extremely challenging.  One advantage to an expanded school day for the high school could be offering additional opportunities for both academic and enrichment programs through the longer day.

QUESTION:  Why is it an issue for 180 teachers to change their work schedules, when hundreds of district families have to rearrange their schedules every month for the late start days?

ANSWER: Our current budget does not have enough money to pay for professional development time for teachers.  The late-start days were put into the schedule when the state cut funding to schools several years ago, which resulted in our completely cutting money for staff training. Other Expanded Learning Time (ELT) schools have build staff training time into their schedules.

QUESTION:  In the private business sector, employees are expected to provide “casual overtime”.  Is that how this will work if Gateway expands the school day?

ANSWER: Each segment of our district staff—teachers, para-professionals, secretaries, custodians and food service workers—has a union contract.  We involved the union heads in making the decision to apply for the planning grant, and have invited them to serve on the planning steering committee.  Scheduling and compensation issues will have to be worked out with each bargaining unit.

QUESTION: I attended high school in the ‘70’s and I don’t understand why we can’t offer our kids what we had available to us.  Why is this?

ANSWER:  As education becomes increasingly driven by research, public accountability, and education policy, demands on staff times have increased considerably.  Some estimates say that these changes over the years have resulted in a 3 hour/day increase in paperwork for teachers.  From my own perspective, I would say that from teaching 25 years ago to being a superintendent today, I would estimate that paperwork time has increased 200-fold!

QUESTION:  We are concerned with staffing to student ratios now…won’t this worsen if we lengthen the school day?

ANSWER:  We have pretty good staff to student ratios in our schools, especially at the elementary level.  This is because we made a decision, as seven towns, to maintain 5 elementary schools—not one or two.  As such, each school must have its own nurse, secretary and custodian; principals and adjustment counselors are shared between some schools.  This adds to the per-pupil cost of providing elementary education at Gateway.  It should be noted that the state’s definition of a very small school is 200 students, and that’s the size of our largest elementary school.

QUESTION:  Are you expecting that many teachers will agree to do this?

ANSWER: This remains to be seen.  We have a number of teachers and staff who have stepped forward to serve on the planning committees.

QUESTION:  Is the state going to do this for 5 years, and then drop it for something new?

ANSWER: This is always a possibility.  However, it is also possible that the state could mandate an expanded school day for all public schools in a few years.  I think we are taking the best course of action to work with funding and time to design a plan—even if we choose not to move forward for 2008.  At a minimum, we will have a plan in place that we can utilize if this is ever mandated.

QUESTION:  Will the state give us additional funding if we expand the school day?

ANSWER: We expect to receive $1,300 per student if we expand the school day in the 2008-2009 school year. This would give an estimated $1.6 million in additional revenue—which is not enough money to expand all staff’s current schedules by 25% (as required by the state).  We will have to creatively look options such as staggering schedules or involving outside, lower cost vendors to provide some opportunities and supervision for students.  

Since the vast reductions in state aid in 2004, and the unknown factors affecting state aid and regional transportation reimbursement, it has been a struggle for the schools to meet student needs and for the towns to pay an increasing percentage of the budget. While we are “above minimum” expenditures in the district, we are well below average per pupil costs compared to other western Massachusetts regional school districts. Part of the problem that every district faces is the gap between what the state says is adequate funding for 11 core areas and the actual cost of providing those same services. It is interesting to note that the state figures are based on assumptions that do not hold true; i.e. health insurance has increased at a rate FAR GREATER than the rate of inflation since the early 1990’s! For Gateway’s current fiscal year, the gap for these 11 areas amounts to just over $3 million and doesn’t include transportation costs, capital costs, or interest costs, which don’t play a part in the state’s ‘foundation’ budget for education.

QUESTION: Will there still be 2-hour late start days?  The Middle School Afterschool Program?

ANSWER:  We will have to design a way to provide professional development during the expanded school day, in order to do away with the 2-hour late start days.  I believe that the most important thing we can do to raise MCAS scores is to improve teaching.  However, other ELT schools have been able to build training time into their school day.  Concerning the afterschool program at the middle school, it is likely that the fee will go away with the expanded school day, but that the activities would be rolled into the additional time and open to all students.  The state has given approval for afterschool program funding to be earmarked to the extended day time, although this funding has been decreasing substantially every year.

COMMENT:  I am concerned that parent and student “choice” over whether or not to do afterschool programs is being taken away with this project.

ANSWER: This is an area we can address in designing our expanded day.  For example, high school students who work afterschool might be able to hold their jobs as a career-development opportunity, if they submit work journals on their experience.  Students who live in households that use their afternoons to complete community service projects for their church or town might still do this work as an approved community service project.  There are valid educational benefits to numerous things—students might have more choice than ever.

QUESTION: We can’t even trust the state to provide 100% transportation reimbursement.  How can we trust them to fund this appropriately?

ANSWER: It will be a good idea to build contingencies into our design plan.  For example, if funding drops below a certain amount, the program will have to be scrapped. Given our district and community resources, we cannot move forward with any plan that is going to cost the district taxpayers more money.

COMMENT: This sounds as though it could be an opportunity for the schools to mix things up a little…perhaps have larger group lectures in the auditorium tied to several classes, and perhaps involving a corps of student teachers in an extended day role.

ANSWER: That is exactly the kind of “thinking outside of the box” that we will need in order to design something that is educationally sound and makes great use of our limited resources. We might also generate new ideas through this planning process that we decide to implement, even if we ultimately choose to not expand the school day at this time.

COMMENT:  It seems as though it is important to involve the people who will be most directly affected—the students themselves—in this planning process.

ANSWER: We will be inviting students from the Middle School and High School to serve on the planning committees.

COMMENT: One of my children comes home now and does 2 – 3 hours of homework a day.  With expanded learning time, she would have no life at all!

ANSWER:  But if your child attended a homework help session each day and came home with all—or most—of her homework already completed, then she might have more of a life than she has now!

QUESTION:  Are you setting up a website?

ANSWER: We will set up a website shortly and post information, along with the questions that were asked tonight.

End of questions from 11/29/06.