Find a new time for the teachers

As a parent of a middle school child that starts late on Friday, I share a lot of the concerns that many of the parents share. I am lucky not to be working at this time and can supervise my student. I understand, though, working parents that cannot and are left to fend for themselves on Fridays.

The problem is not the late start time but the type of supervision available on campus. Possibly a suggestion would be to offer music, art, science and such, as they do after school at the elementary schools.

Why are these kids allowed to stay home and have all these kids congregate at their homes? Even if the parent chooses to leave their child home alone, I am sure that they feel that their child is responsible and makes responsible decisions. In that case they would not allow the other children to come in the home. If they are old enough to stay home alone then you would think they are capable of making those mature decisions.

If you could have collaboration with the teachers, why not amend the contract and have them stay one hour after or before school (8 a.m. is not too early) once a week. In Simi where I have taught, the kids were let out early one day a week and we had a staff meeting one week, a collaboration meeting twice a month, and one day we stayed in our classes correcting, meeting with parents and scheduling for the upcoming week so we did not have to interrupt our own family time with these items every night.

There is a solution, and I think that there could be one that would satisfy the needs of the teachers and parents, and those kids that are roaming the street would have a place to go. I agree that 9 a.m. is late enough to start, and then they move to the high school and they start at 7:30 a.m., which makes no sense because studies have proven that they need the most sleep and their brains are not quite ready to learn at such an early hour.

I hope that all parties come to a solution that works. You cannot please everyone, but I feel that Kelli Hayes is doing her best in a very difficult situation, but the school board needs to (consider) the needs of parents as well as students and teachers. Isn't that why we chose them? Lisa Padilla Moorpark