Saratoga Union School District weekly minimum day causes controversy with parents

“Causes financial hardship for parents. Creates Wednesday afternoon[s] of empty hours which are wasted hours for our kids.” 

These are the opening phrases on the “Stop Early Dismissal” petition created by a group of parents to encourage the discontinuation the new weekly minimum days at Redwood Middle School and Argonaut, Foothill and Saratoga Elementary Schools.

At the beginning of the school year, the Saratoga Union School District decided to end school for students at 12:30 p.m instead of 2:10 p.m every Wednesday. This new policy has incited controversy among parents over the issues of childcare for working parents and fewer educational hours for students. Whether the minimum days continue into next year is now being negotiated. 

District superintendent Lane Weiss said the idea of a weekly “early-out” day has been discussed many times in the past. He said in the past few years, the district has had seven sets of Wednesday Thursday minimum days for the middle school and 10 sets on two-day minimum days for the elementary school, scattered throughout the course of one year. 

“This schedule was mainly implemented for teacher training,” Weiss said. “But there was a lot of distance between the weeks where teachers would get training, and parents couldn’t remember which weeks were early-outs. So there was a lot of complaints about how the system wasn’t consistent.”

Also adding to the need for more minimum days is the switch in public education to Common Core standards— something teachers need training and time to put in place, Weiss said.

“Essentially, you gained back the Thursdays that were minimum days, and the Wednesdays that were already shortened, got a little bit shorter,” Weiss said. “Also the teachers would be able to use this extra time to collaborate.”

However, many parents are concerned about their children’s education because the policy reduces many hours of school time.

In addition, some parents were upset that they were not informed about the new policy until August.

“Our community was caught off guard and there was a level of communication issues,” said Rishi Kumar, a Redwood parent. “I think teacher training is very important but at the same time, the parents feel that school time should not be compromised.”

Weiss agreed that communication with parents and the rest of the community did not go well.

“We could have done a much much better job,” Weiss said. “We announced it at PTA and board meetings, but that’s not enough. We needed to do more.”

Weiss said that because of the lack of communication, many parents approached the district with unhappy reactions. However, he said that he did receive many positive reactions.

“Some people approached us and said, ‘Thank you. Finally. My kid needs a break in the middle of the week. And it’s consistent,’” Weiss said.

Kumar and 327 other parents have signed the “Stop Early Dismissal” petition posted on Change.com. Kumar has also approached Weiss with other parents to present their opinion of the new policy and to offer solutions for what students could do on Wednesday afternoons.

“We suggested to [Weiss] that we should potentially offer some recreational activities, for example programming, to supplement learning,” Kumar said. 

The problem with this idea is that after-school education requires money the district does not have. As a result, the district created a free after-school daycare at the Warren-Hutton house, located just down the street from Redwood.

“It’s not the best of arrangements, but it’s something we have to go with,” Kumar said. “Our kids have a safe place, and the teachers will get the training, so it was overall a good trade off for this year.”

Kumar added that although this arrangement has appeased the opposition, it is still important for both parents and the school board to consider changes for future years.

Currently, Kumar said there is a new contract being negotiated by the Saratoga Union School District and the Saratoga Teacher’s Association regarding the process of training teachers for Common Core.

“It’s currently a closed negotiation where the public is not invited,” Kumar said. “There has been recommendation from certain members of the community that they should open up the negotiation so the parents can provide feedback for all terms in the negotiation that is currently going on.”

Weiss said that because of strong reactions from some parents in the community, the district is going to be doing a survey to see where parents stand. He said that there are areas of the schedule he would like to explore with parents, the teachers and with the rest of the community. 

Kumar stated that no matter what, the students’ educations should always be everyone’s first priority.

“Redwood is super critical in getting kids ready for high school and our school district is a top notch, high performing district,” Kumar said. “We need to negotiate a contract that doesn’t take away from instructional minutes.”

Weiss agreed that students should always be a school district's first interest.

“I can only hope that it’s better for the kids,” Weiss said. “Teachers are getting more training and support for Common Core, and the research says that when teachers have time to collaborate and work together, things are better for kids.”