- Target:
- LaPorte Independent School District Superintendent
- Region:
- United States of America
I would like to thank all the parents that voiced concerns and participated in the petition. Unfortunately, the superintendent did not budge on the matter in queston. Hopefully, we can figure out another way to approach this matter in the future.
Due to Hurricane Ike, the Superintendent of The LaPorte Independent School District (LPISD) made the executive decision to lengthen the students’ daily schedule by thirty minutes in order to make up the twelve instructional days that were lost.
There is no question it is critical for students to make up as much of the time missed as possible, however, there is a question as to why such drastic changes are necessary in the students’ daily schedules when extended holidays and teacher in service days may be cancelled or altered to compensate the time missed. Also, The Texas Education Agency has agreed to waive up to ten days of missed instructional time that may have occurred in consequence with Hurricane Ike. (http://www.tea.state.tx.us/taa/comm093008.html) (www.tea.state.tx.us)
Circumstances that must be considered when altering daily schedule are as follows:
* The change in the student's daily schedule adds up to 5 days more then needed of make up time.
*Some of the jr. high students have morning practice as early as 6:30a.m. If not being released until 4:06, that makes for a rather long day.
*No other district has made changes to their daily schedule meaning all students participating in any of the schools’ extracurricular activities will require weekly early dismissal from class and could miss class work and other important information in order to make it to competitions.
* Some of the high school students in extracurricular activities (sports, band, Chatos) have practices that last 3-5 hours after school, making this change most detrimental to families and their dinner time.
*Some elementary school students have lunch as early as 10:45a.m. and will have to go until 3:30p.m. with only a small snack (such as a fruit snack pouch without a beverage) around the 1o’clock hour to hold them over. Also, how are some elementary parents to work out the pick up schedule for those students that get picked up by independent day cares?
*Most importantly, some kids have been deeply impacted by Hurricane Ike and need as much "normalcy" as possible, changing their daily schedule seems least conducive to their needs.
We, the undersigned, call on to The LaPorte Independent School District’s Superintendent to reconsider his decision of extending the students’ daily schedules and explore alternative methods such as altering extended and students holidays in order to regain instructional time missed because of Hurricane Ike.
The Parents Against LPISD Schedule Change petition to LaPorte Independent School District Superintendent was written by Jessica Thompson and is in the category Education at GoPetition.