BVSD explores solutions for Pioneer Elementary to maintain longer school day
May 5—Parents at Lafayette's Escuela Bilingüe Pioneer are worried their school will lose learning time as the Boulder Valley School District transitions to a standardized, seven-hour elementary school day in the fall.
District officials have said the district is moving to a standardized day, with a 7:50 a.m. start time for most elementary schools, to give all students equal learning time and access to the same school experiences. The changes also include a late-start on Wednesdays districtwide, giving teachers common planning time.
For most elementary schools, there will be a 10 minute or less difference in the start time next school year. But Pioneer, a dual-immersion bilingual school, has the longest school day at seven hours and 20 minutes and could lose instructional time.
District officials said they're listening to parent concerns and working to develop solutions for Pioneer, including looking at extended school day opportunities and meaningful experiences before school on late-start days, so the changes aren't negative.
"What we are aiming for is additional support and opportunities at Pioneer," said Robbyn Fernandez, area superintendent for the east network. "How do we do what we were doing before and do it better?"
Parent Amber Byers, who spoke at a recent school board meeting, said a parent survey found 91% of those who responded don't think a shorter school day will result in equity, while the majority also were opposed to the late-start day. Eighteen parents responded to the survey, according to school officials.
"It all comes down to who do you want to help," she said. "If you're trying to close the opportunity gap and increase equity, then you need to go out of your way to prioritize the most vulnerable members of our community."
She said a loss in instructional time would be significant, especially given that students already are trying to recover from learning loss as a result of the pandemic.
"Because Pioneer is a dual-language immersion school, the pandemic really detracted from the full bilingual experience of learning two languages simultaneously," she said. "This is something that needs to be addressed in order to achieve equity."
Transportation also is a complicating factor. At both Pioneer and the district's other dual-immersion bilingual school, Boulder's University Hill Elementary, all students open enroll. And, unlike other "choice" schools, students are offered district transportation. Families at Pioneer also don't all live in Lafayette, with some coming from Broomfield, Louisville and other communities.
As of now, the district's plan on late-start Wednesdays is to have school buses drop students off at the late start time. Parents who need the free, district provided before-school care would be responsible for getting their students to school.
But, Byers said, many of Pioneer's families, especially those in poverty, rely on the bus.
"This won't (work for) the kids who need it the most," she said.
Rob Price, Boulder Valley's assistant superintendent of operations, said the district is looking into whether its possible to provide earlier bus service at the district elementary schools with the highest percentage of low income families on Wednesdays.
Pioneer's longer school day was developed in 2013, when the school participated in the Time Collaborative, a pilot initiated to develop expanded learning time programs at schools in five states. The school redesigned its school day to include longer blocks for math and literacy plus a block for personal learning time, when students get extra help or explore a topic that interests them.
Pioneer Principal Guillermo Medina said the equal school day changes are providing an opportunity for the school to evaluate again its schedule to maximize learning time.
"We're really interested in closing the achievement gap," he said. "We're not getting the results we want. We want to look at our data and what's working. We want to restructure the day and be equitable."
