We the undersigned parents of students at San Antonito Stem Magnet Elementary are distressed by the recently announced change APS has made to our school schedule.

This change, and the timing of its announcement, disregards the needs of families and working parents and is deeply inappropriate to the East Mountains in particular.

This nearly hour and a half change represents a singularly costly and disruptive rewriting of many of our daily lives. Parents and caregivers make hard choices, choices about their employment and where they live, choices about what school they attend, choices that cannot simply be rearranged in two weeks time—and they make these hard choices to buy themselves time with their families, quiet mornings with their children before school, evenings for family dinners.

This time together in the morning will be lost under this plan. This time in the evenings will need to be rushed so that exhausted children can get to bed early for their long day of school and extra hours of daycare. Many families have already made (and paid for!) childcare based on the schedule we were given. Further, many afterschool programs are full at this late date. Families where both parents (and other caregivers) must balance jobs with family life will be particularly hard hit, as it is impossible for many to adapt their work schedules on such short notice.

Further, in the winter, this will mean dangerously early driving in the dark on icy roads, as well as many missed hours of instructional time—late starts, of which we have so many, will cut into a greater percentage of our school days.

The phone message announcing this change did not explain what purported benefit to our students could possibly outweigh these costs. We are frustrated that APS has not only made a decision that causes hardship for families but announced it with virtually no time for parents to make other arrangements. We can only suspect it is not the education of our students or the support of East Mountain families that drives this decision. Further, it seems the timing is designed to prevent response by those who are affected by this decision.

Nevertheless, San Antonito parents would like to make our voices heard. We wish to petition the decision makers on this issue—whether it be the Transportation department, the APS Board, or individual administrators of schools in our area--to give the parents in the East Mountains more time. If this decision truly is necessary because of limited resources or for the benefits of children and families--and many of us hope there would be alternatives--we ask that we at least be granted the time necessary to do everything we can to limit the negative effects this decision will have on so many of us.

PETITION TO DELAY/RECONSIDER IMPLEMENTATION OF CHANGE TO SASM ELEMENTARY BELL SCHEDULE FOR ONE YEAR