To Dr. Chang, Mayor Walsh, Councilor Ciommo, and Chairman O'Neill:
The Winship Elementary School community is delighted to learn that we have been chosen for Extended Learning Time. We understand the benefits of ELT for the enrichment of our students and enthusiastically welcome this investment from the district, with one request. Our current school day is 9:30-3:30; we strongly urge you to implement this additional learning time at the beginning of the school day, instead of extending the day further into the afternoon, for the following reasons:
1. Elementary school students wake early in the morning and must wait as long as four hours for the current Winship day to begin at 9:30 a.m. They are curious, alert, and attentive at the beginning of the day, but by 3 or 4pm Winship children are exhausted, significantly limiting the theoretical benefits of additional learning time at the end of the day.
2. The proposed change means Winship's day will end at 4:30pm, so students who take the bus will arrive home between 5:30 and 7pm. This does not allow for after-school enrichment, tutoring, family time, homework, dinner, and a bedtime that accords with a healthy schedule for younger children.
3. We worry about the additional stress this schedule will put on our dedicated teachers who, as it is, often stay until 5pm and later for staff meetings and development, as well as to tutor students who are struggling, meet with parents, and prepare for the following day. This change will extend their workday even later into the evening, cutting into their own family and personal time.
4. Most importantly, this change does not mitigate a much more significant challenge for Winship families: our late start time. Winship's working parents already have limited options for before-school care, and no options for students under the age of 5 (our YMCA before-school program does not serve pre-K students). This has caused serious concerns for Principal Ford because many families simply do not have a place for their child to go between 8 and 9:30am.
If we could move ELT to the beginning of the day, beginning at 8:30am, Winship students and families would benefit fully from the district's generous expansion of our students' learning opportunities and solve the persistent logistical problem of our late start time. Conversely, adding the time to the end of the day would put additional stress on families and teachers, in ways we worry the community could not sustain indefinitely.
Winship is a growing, thriving, enthusiastic community. Expanding the schedule at the beginning of the day would take advantage of otherwise idle time when our students are alert and excited to learn and play, a time of day when working parents struggle to find childcare. Thank you for considering this request to keep the Winship on its successful trajectory.
From,
The Undersigned Winship Families
