According to the article:
Parent drop-off will be permitted only between 7:30 and 8 a.m., and parents may not park on school property. Cars will be prohibited from entering the school lot after 8 a.m., when buses arrive.It goes on to say:
Bussed students will be dismissed at 1:40 p.m. Other students will be dismissed and cars will be allowed to enter campus after the buses leave.If you consider these statements, busses will be arriving after 8 a.m., school is scheduled to start at 8:05. And school is scheduled to end at 2:05, for a six hour elementary day, but will be ending instead by 1:40 p.m. In short as a result of the construction delay the Lower Nazareth students will be in school at least a half hour less than normal indefinitely.
It should be noted that there are very few walkers at Lower Nazareth because under pressure from parents the district removed the crossing guard on Newburg Road, had it declared Hazardous, and decided to bus all students within 1.5 miles from the school who would have used the crosswalk. What they found was that these parents typically dropped off in the morning on their way to work and then had the children take the bus home in the afternoon. Given this, the school does have significant parent drop-off despite a low number of walkers.
Now, because construction has not been completed and because parents chose to drop their children off instead of using the bus, all children get a half hour less schooling per day.
What do you think? Should construction on the lots dictate the length of day? Is it necessary to end early to accomodate pick-up and drop off?
1 comment:
This is pathetic. Nazareth already has some of the shortest school days known to man. In fact, I think they are as short as are mandated by state law. Most schools are closer to 6.5 hours a day. Take our measly 6 hours, subtract out a half hour for lunch and now (in Lower Nazareth) another 1/2 hour to get the kids on the buses. It is ridiculous.
The real problem at Lower Nazareth is EVERYBODY drives their kid to and from school. The busing that is offered is grossly underused. Most of those kids you see jumping out of the cars should be taking the bus. But mommy wants Johnny to get an extra 1/2 hour sleep. So, as a result, we have to add another 100 yards of navigational room to accomodate all of the parent dropoffs.
Spoiled kids and parents!
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