Dear Erie School District Students & Parents, 

Talking to many of you and experiencing it myself, I've come to notice how the majority of us are displeased with the time at which middle and high school students are dismissed. The current dismissal time of 3:50 does not work with the schedule of most parents, students, and even teachers themselves. Below are many of the issues we are currently facing:

- Many parents have varying work schedules that start in late afternoon and continue into the late evening.

-Some students face the same issue as many of them have work that starts at 4:00 or 5:00.  A dismissal time of 3:50 doesn't give these students enough time to even go home and change, let alone complete a work shift.

-Students can't go in the morning for special help, as many don't have rides or have siblings that need to go to school first.

-:Lunches at 30 minutes, are also too short over a vast period of time. Additionally, the new 4th period lunch is too late for some, with a start time of 1:46. 

-The longer school day adds to teacher workloads which makes the commitment to after school clubs and activities more difficult.

-Students in current athletic programs are having a difficult time juggling the academic school schedule with sports. As a result, some students have given up their positions on various teams because the commitment to both has proven to be too much.

-Tuition paying Collegiate Academy students, or teachers who live outside of the district have to commute, thus making their arrival or dismissal time even later. If the commute time is 30 minutes, this adds an hour to their day.   

-In conjunction with the prior years' dismissal adjustments, students are now dismissed approximately an hour later per day.  In any given school week, this could add up to five additional hours--without any any reason given.

As a result of the aforementioned issues:

-students have less time to be with family members

-students have less daylight hours to walk home should they be required to do so.  

-students are unable to find and continue with gainful employment as needed.  Some students need to work to support themselves.  Employment teaches independence, strong communication skills, etc.

-Businesses are unable to find dependable employees during after school business hours.  When businesses are short-staffed, they are likely to lose money

The Pennsylvania department of Education states that we only need 5.5 hours of education to be considered a school day, ours had already been beyond that at a whopping 7 hours, increasing that has come to bring more harm upon the community than good. It's one causing students, teachers and everyone else in a tremendous amount of stress. It's also one that can easily be fixed as we can go back to our old schedules leaving at 2:50 or 3:30.