Burnaby parents are worried about local high schools adding an extra block to the school day and staggering student schedules to address overcrowding.
"We are concerned about how an extended schedule in secondary schools could impact students, families, and the whole school community," district parent advisory council (DPAC) chair Harinder Parmar told the Burnaby NOW in an emailed statement.
Parents at five local high schools got letters last Thursday informing them the district was considering the move.
Parmar said she had been informed the day before that the letters were coming.
She said members of DPAC's executive have discussed their concerns as well as concerns they have heard informally from other parents.
DPAC is worried schedule changes could create stress and possible safety issues for families with multiple children because they might have different school start and end times, according to Parmar.
"Siblings who can no longer walk/travel to school together, they arrive and leave home at different times, so maybe it negatively impacts their family connections," she said. "Sometimes older siblings take care of their younger siblings in the morning/after school, during the gap when parents are at work."
Changes to the schedule could also impact extra-curricular activities before and after school as well as at lunch time, since the students and teachers involved might have their lunch break at different times.
"Will the sense of school community, connection, and friendships be negatively impacted as students/teachers/staff have different start/end/lunch times?" Parmar asked.
DPAC is also questioning whether teachers who end up with earlier start times because of the changes will want to stay longer after school to support sports and other extra-curricular activities, according to Parmar.
"These are just initial concerns as we do not know any details besides the five schools under consideration," she said.
Adding an extra block to the school day and staggering schedules was not the only option the district considered to address overcrowding, according to Parmar.
School officials had also considered an all-year trimester system and a "hybrid model" but decided the best option was the extended schedule, she said.
"An example provided was it could be something like: Grades 8/9 attend Block 1-4, Grades 10/11 attend blocks 2-5, and Grade 12 could have classes anywhere in blocks 1-5, with free/flex blocks in between their classes," she said.
For DPAC, the schedule changes under consideration reflect serious problems with how government has handled population growth in Burnaby when it comes to schools.
"We know that our school administrators and staff are trying their best to manage the lack of school capacity created by not planning for the increased density Burnaby has experienced for decades, not building new schools to accommodate the city's new zoning and density plans, and not building the new schools we have received (Alpha and Burnaby North) to the projected growth of that area," Parmar said.
DPAC has a general meeting Tuesday night for parent representatives from each local school.
Parmar said the schedule changes are on the agenda.
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