MC Faulkner loves the days when her classes at Northwestern High School start two hours late.
The 17-year-old senior meets up with friends at Ebenezer Grill or Durango Bagel to hang out and have breakfast.
“It's a time to refresh,” she said. “I feel more rejuvenated.”
Educators also are big supporters of Rock Hill schools' Late Start program. Six days a year, classes at all 25 schools start two hours late to give teachers time to collaborate on projects and plan lessons. When students arrive, they attend shortened sessions of all their classes.
“Anytime teachers can get a chunk of time to work together is beneficial,” said Cassidy Valerino, a Northside Elementary assistant principal. “I really feel it's invaluable.”
But not everyone is a fan.
Since the program started several years ago, school officials have continued to hear from parents who say it's an inconvenience. Some have to leave for work and don't have child care on Late Start days. Others work too far away to drive back to Rock Hill and take children to school.
“Some believe we're cheating our kids out of instructional time,” school board Chairman Bob Norwood said.
Superintendent Lynn Moody said parents likely are frustrated because they're not aware that they can drop off children at school at the regular time. Every campus has employees on hand to supervise students until classes start. Parents just need to call the school and make arrangements, Moody said.
“I've heard they offer child care, but they don't advertise it well as far as I can tell,” said Gay Randolph, a Winthrop University assistant professor of business whose son attends South Point High. “It's a little bit of a problem.”
Fortunately, Randolph said, her employer is flexible.
“As long as teachers are getting something out of it, I'm OK with it,” she said.
Ultimately, proponents say, Late Start is intended to boost student achievement.
Teachers across the district are assigned projects on which they collaborate. In past years, they've studied ways to improve student literacy, analyzed state educational requirements and crafted lessons.
Their focus this school year is creating common assessments, or tests, that will be used in the same subject at every school. That way “tests won't vary depending on who your teacher is,” Moody said.
Teachers work in groups, analyzing previous test questions and discussing pros and cons of each. The process is intended to yield a collection of the most effective exam questions from each school.
“That is one powerful benefit of a common assessment,” Sheila Huckabee, director of secondary education, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “If one teacher's students do extremely well, and another teacher's students do not, then they can share instructional strategies and lessons to help support the teacher with the weaker results.”
Said Moody, “What we're trying to do is tap that best creativity and innovation that we have collectively.”
During the Late Start day on Nov. 11, teachers at Northside Elementary School of the Arts gathered in groups separated by grade level and focused on math exams. That's a subject many students struggle with, said fifth-grade teacher Mabra Herlong.
Herlong and colleagues Nancy Pratt and Stacey Lewis reviewed tests they'd given students and chose questions they thought were keepers.
One question they all agreed was good was a word problem involving hot dogs.
“Teaching that kind of question can be more applicable in life,” Herlong said.
Moody's staff plans to collect exam questions from schools and post them to an online bank, from which teachers can choose ones they want to use.
The common assessment project is something teachers would have to work on no matter what. Without Late Start, they said they'd be doing it on their own time.
Other school districts across the country with similar delayed school days have faced the same criticism as Rock Hill schools have. According to news reports, parents and students from an elementary school in North Highlands, Calif., protested outside the campus last school year demanding an end to the delays.
In Rock Hill, school officials said they're trying to accommodate families. They cut the originally proposed eight Late Start days to six. Moody also said she'll look into making sure parents know that students may arrive at the regular time.
Faulkner, the Northwestern senior, said she sympathizes with families who see Late Start as inconvenient.
“I can see what parents are saying,” she said. “For me, it's not an issue because I drive to school.”
Shawn Cetrone 803-329-4072
@Nyx.CommentBody@