Longer Day Means 30 More Minutes of Problems

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Dennis Racket

Sophomore Quinn Fitzsimmons said the extended day will cause conflicts for students involved in extra-curricular activities.

Students rejoiced last week as schools city-wide were closed. Coupled with cold weather, the snow was too much to handle for the city of Atlanta. Friday marks the seventh day this school year that was cancelled by the people downtown. Three days for Irma, one day for Trump and the College Football Playoff, and Three for “heavy snow.” These cancellations have Superintendent Meria Carstarphen riled. But what she did next sent shockwaves through the Atlanta Public School student body… she added more scho

Carstarphen added 30 minutes of teaching and learning to every school day between January 29 and March 29. This schedule brings on a plethora of issues for students and staff

For many students with jobs, this schedule change will come with a cost, literally. Students who work from 4:30 to 10:00 will have to push back their schedules and lose opportunity to get some much-needed money.

Additionally, students will lose valuable homework time. A loss of 30 minutes results in negative impacts on students, especially those involved in IB an AP classes whose workloads are more than substantial. Some may not recognize that teachers’ schedules also are interfered with. They lose important time that could be spent grading or planning.

Many students who participate in extra-curricular or after-school activities will face conflicts because of this new schedule. Every practice and game for the next two months will have to take the longer school days into account. This even applies to non-APS students. North Atlanta rents field space for non-affiliated soccer, baseball, and lacrosse teams and all of their schedules will have to make a shift as well.

The readjustments would be worth the hassle if students could truly benefit from a few surplus minutes, however, that is not the case. Realistically speaking, a couple more minutes during a class will not be advantageous to most students because there is not much of a change created by 8 minutes or so.

This situation puts every level of the public education hierarchy in a bad position, some more than others, but, the system that is in effect for the next two months is neither the solution we need nor the solution we deserve. And maybe, just maybe this could be a sign that school should not start August first.