Longer school days in store for enhanced option schools

Nashville’s nine enhanced option elementary schools will have longer — and more costly — school days staring this fall, board members learned on Tuesday.

Sandra Tinnon, assistant superintendent of Teaching and Learning for Metro Nashville Public Schools, told the board “all students” will benefit from the 45 minutes of additional classroom time each day.

The change, which takes effect in the 2008-2009 academic year, will substitute the extra daily minutes for the optional, under-attended “summer sessions” currently offered by all enhanced-option schools.

“We will reach all children,” Tinnon said.

But the change won’t come free. Anticipated additional transportation expenditures could add up fast, as the nine schools will be dismissing at the same time as middle schools, and additional drivers may need to be hired. Costs associated with teaching staff, however, will remain unchanged.

The extended days will also allow expansion of tutoring programs, as well more time for instruction of reading and math, Tinnon said.

Though a defining feature of enhanced option schools is 20 additional days of school per year for students, Tinnon said the voluntary 20-day summer sessions — which currently take place at the end of each school year — have not been full. And in many cases, attendance at the sessions for enrolled students dwindled toward the end of the sessions.

Tinnon said principals of all nine schools support the change, though results from a telephone survey of parents and teachers were “mixed” in an approximately 50-50 ratio.

Metro’s enhanced option schools are Bordeaux, Buena Vista, Caldwell, Glenn, Fall-Hamilton, Kirkpatrick, Napier, Park Avenue and Warner. In addition to extended classroom time, enhanced option schools also feature small class sizes of 15 students per teacher, pre-kindergarten programs, social services, programming for gifted and talented students and after-school care.

Board also hears updates on rezoning, school orientations

The school board’s meeting was abbreviated Tuesday, due to an event honoring students taking place afterward. But the board nonetheless plowed through an agenda packed full of information.

Board member Mark North announced that the district’s Rezoning Task Force will, on May 28, present its final recommendations. Any changes the board makes based on those recommendations would take place in the 2009-2010 school year.

The task force has worked since January to overhaul student zoning in MNPS, tackling issues ranging from neighborhood schools and cross-county busing to the dynamics of magnet schools and equitable distribution of resources.

After the board hears the recommendations, a public hearing will allow members of the community to offer their own thoughts on the proposals. That hearing is scheduled for June 3, and will take place at East Literature Magnet High.

Board members also learned — and expressed concerns about — changes the district has adopted to the orientation programs that take place at Metro middle and high schools.

Metro principals voted that individual schools will, this coming year, determine their own dates and times for orientations rather than follow a district-wide schedule. Several board members expressed concerns that the new format will not offer transportation for students, meaning that the events may not be accessible to all students.

Board member Steve Glover said he expects attendance to drop.

“I hope we watch very closely what the participation is this year,” Glover said.

Schools are asked to publish dates and times of orientations through the district’s phone system and individual school Web sites.