Denver Public Schools Late-Start Schedule Days

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We, the undersigned family members of Denver Public Schools students, find the district's decision to add six half-days of school to the current year's calendar to be grossly insensitive to the needs of students and their families.

When the districts negotiation with the union this fall resulted in additional professional development time for teachers, administrators ought to have added three full days of professional development to the calendar to provide for the time. Had DPS done so, KC childcare services could have been made available in the same way that they are offered on other no-school days. The district's decision to institute half days of school for students has forced a great number of parents to take six days off of work instead of three.

Further, the district has had to waste precious resources on communications in relation to this highly problematic arrangement that risks student safety and learning when children are dropped off at school at the wrong time or not provided with lunch.

In addition, each DPS school has had to expend a great deal of time in preparing for the unusual late-start schedule.

As the district found it possible to institute last-minute schedule changes in the fall, it can do so again this winter. We ask the superintendent and school board to recognize and rectify this ill-conceived schedule change by adjusting the 2008-2009 calendar to provide for the additional professional development time for teachers in full-day trainings. This can be accomplished by canceling four of the remaining scheduled half days and consolidating that time into two full days scheduled on Mondays or Fridays in the spring.


725 Signatures

  • Bonnie Adrian
  • Elisa Cohen
  • Jennifer Reich
  • David Scudamore
  • Lauren
  • Chanda Thomsen
    • Comments
    • This needs to be eliminated asap
  • Brian Koenigberg
  • Renee Supplee
  • Chrissy
  • Mario Figueroa
    • Comments
    • Very difficult schedule for single working parent
  • Alison George
  • Elizabeth Scully
  • Eric Voogt
    • Comments
    • These six mornings off make no sense to me. I am happy to support more teacher professional development but six mornings off put alot of parents in a real tough situation seemingly unnecessarily.
  • candyce english
  • Christian J. Williams
  • Melanie Hall
    • Comments
    • also inconvenient to teachers
  • diane santorico
  • michelle reichmuth
  • C. Sandra Pyun
  • Frank Merrill
  • Jennifer Stier
    • Comments
    • After consolidating the half-days into whole ones, if there is a remaining half-day off of school, classrooms would run more smoothly and families would be much better accommodated by early release rather than late start. Classes were very poorly attended today as a majority of families recognized that a mere afternoon of school and jarring break in the kids' routine would amount to not much more than an educational waste. Let's work in the children's educational best interest, and that of their families. Thanks!
  • Ruth Apodaca
  • Monique Rugile
  • Tanisha Davis
  • Leanne McDorman
  • Kelly Meeter
  • Nancy Walsh
    • Comments
    • 3 Children at Teller and Morey ( last name of Vial)
  • Kerstin/John Froyd
    • Comments
    • The erosion of student instructional time is a disgrace. This should never have been part of the negotiations.
  • Jenny Jackson
  • Kate Donelan
    • Comments
    • I am against these late start days entirely. I do not wish to have more non student contact days on the calendar.
  • Sharon Geier
  • Chris James
    • Comments
    • It seems to me that every contingency has been affected by these late starts....Parents are affected by having to work out logistics, Teachers must try to put together a class that will only last 1/2 hour, and the students must acclimate to a shorter class.....I just don't see where anyone wins.
  • Sarah Kinzer
  • Audree Meunier
    • Comments
    • I am not quite sure what the purpose of today was. My son's class was disjointed because of the lack of students and the way the day ran. Please fix this.
  • Anna Jones
    • Comments
    • Extend summer instead!!! Bring kids in after Labor Day and give teachers the last 2 weeks of August to plan!
  • Christopher Shelton
  • Melanie Backes
    • Comments
    • One late start day -- another instructional day for students lost. A solid week of professional development for teachers at the start of the year would benefit students and teachers far more than all of these random days spread throughout the school year.
  • Patty Hakala
    • Comments
    • DPS and the Teachers Union failed to have any representation of the Elementary Schools when making this assinine decision.
  • Lori Trautwein
  • Anne Burton
    • Comments
    • What a waste of a school day. Why can't DPS combine for a full teacher day.
  • Jennifer D. Gill
    • Comments
    • For two parents who work full time, today's schedule was hugely inconvenient for us.
  • Pam Osborne
    • Comments
    • В
  • Karolyn Tregembo
  • Nico Baker
    • Comments
    • Not only does this affect us as parents, it affects attendance of students and short-changes their learning time, also it affects teachers who have to transport their own students to other DPS schools, in the middle of the day, taking away from teaching and planning time.
  • Gina Batali-Brooks
  • William Leiren
  • Mary Brigit Larson
  • Martha Rooney Saitta
  • Dean Saitta
  • Denise Figueroa