Late Starts, Co-Op Agreements Discussed at Dearborn School Board Meeting

The regular meeting of the Dearborn School Board meeting was light on topics, but full of discussion about the , agreements with other school districts and the merit of late start days when it concerns parents.

Bullying

The first topic the board discussed was its Sept. 14 anti-bullying event, which all who attended agreed was a great opportunity to highlight an issue that affects the entire community.

“It was an outstanding event,” said Supt. Brian Whiston.

Associate Superintendent Gail Shenkman said that the district's 2,200 staff members have gone through anti-bullying training and are ready to begin documenting incidents of bullying to provide a baseline for further remedies to stop the behavior.

Co-Operative Agreements

Additionally, the district agreed to enter into two agreements–one with the Genesee Intermediate School District to provide seat time waivers so that students who cannot attend traditional classes can graduate; and one with the Crestwood School District, to open Dearborn's adult education services to Crestwood-district residents.

The Genesee agreement allows students to complete courses online, Whiston said.

“We do have about a dozen students who take advantage of it a year, so we need to have an agreement in place,” he said.

The agreement with Crestwood Schools comes on the heels on an agreement with Garden City Schools, which will send an additional 65 full-time equivalent students to Dearborn for adult education services. Another four students will be gained as a result of Crestwood agreement, and no further expenditures will be incurred as a result of either agreement, district officials said.

Late Start Disagreements

One topic that came up for discussion that was not on Monday night’s agenda was the fact that the district apparently scheduled a late-start day–which means students come in an hour later than usual–on the same that they one facility had an open house at 4 p.m.

Trustee Aimee Blackburn told Whiston that a late start and a decidedly early open house disrespected parents because it essentially required them to start work late, and leave early if they wished to attend the event.

“We need to revisit this,” she said.

Blackburn went on tell Whiston that the schedule for the open house was counteractive to efforts to encourage parents to come to their child's school. She also said it took too long to get an answer about the misstep, and that when an answer was forthcoming, it was not acceptable coming from an associate superintendent.

For Whiston’s part, he said after the meeting that he was unaware that a school had an open house scheduled for 4 p.m., and that in an ideal world, they would occur in the morning and the afternoon so that parents could have a choice as to when was most convenient to attend.

Walk to School Day

Also, the district announced that Oct. 5 would be the schools’ official “Walk to School Day.” Whiston said encouraging students to walk to school instead of driving encourages activity, and will help eliminate traffic deadlocks in and around the high schools.