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Schools

District Outlines New Schedule for Grades 1-3

Staggered reading schedule explained further as district provides additional answers to families.

In response to questions from community members, this week updated some answers to frequently-asked questions.

“Minimally the District will be providing yard duty supervision,” the district's update explains. “We are hoping that parent groups get involved in offering specialized activities. Consider making contact with other parents and families in your children's classes and setting up carpools.”

At the June 26 about the new staggered-reading schedule for grades 1-3, PUSD staff outlined a sample schedule. While start and finish times will vary from school to school, the general schedule will run as follows:

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8:15 – 9:00: Group A (15 students for reading)

9:00 – 10:00: Remainder of students arrive; classrooms at 30 students.

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10:00 – 10:15: Recess

10:15-11:45: 30-student instruction

11:45 – 12:30: Lunch and lunch recess

12:30 – 2:00: 30-student instruction

2:00 – 2:10: Recess; dismissal for Group A

2:10 – 2:55: Group B (15 students for reading)

2:55 – Dismissal for Group B

Sample Schedule for Families with Two or More Elementary Children

The district also addressed concerns that staggered drop-off and pick-up times could create four round-trip drives per day for some families, five for some families with three or more children.

The district's suggested addition of on-campus supervision or specialized activities before and after school would alleviate scheduling issues, especially for those with children in each of three levels of elementary school (Kindergarten, grade 1-3, grades 4-5).

Without such added programming, a family with a kindergartener, a second-grader and a fourth-grader, for instance, might experience added challenges with the new school-day schedule:

8:05 / 8:15: Child A (Kindergartener) and Child C (4th grader) begin school.

9:00: Child B (2nd grader) begins the school day (if a “late bird” reader)

11:25: Child A (Kindergartener) dismissed from school

2:55: Child B and Child C dismissed from school

At a school with this general bell schedule, an “early-bird” reader would arrive at school at the same time as his or her siblings and be dismissed at 2:10 p.m.; the rest of the schedule would remain the same.

Some parents at the informational meeting suggested families work together more closely to carpool with each other’s children, thus lightening family schedule conflicts and traffic congestion.

Superintendent Parvin Ahmadi also told Pleasanton Patch about the district’s plans to communicate and collaborate with licensed child care providers.

“At this point we are collecting names of as many day care providers as possible to contact them to attend a meeting where we will share information regarding the schedule and answer any questions they may have,” she said.

“We recognize change is difficult. As the teachers said at the meeting, 20:1 is what we really hope for in the future. In the meantime, we will do whatever we possibly can to make the best of a challenge that we are facing with class sizes going to 30:1 next year.

“Staggered reading provides a great opportunity for differentiation in classrooms. We recognize change is difficult," said Ahmadi.

"As the teachers said at the meeting, 20:1 is what we really hope for in the future. In the meantime, we will do whatever we possibly can to make the best of a challenge that we are facing with class sizes going to 30:1 next year.”

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