Petition is launched to stop Monday early closings and provide more recess time

Dismissing all elementary school students 2 or 2 1/2 hours early early every Monday makes the entire schedule fragmented and inadequate.  The students are in school for 30 hours and 50 minutes per week. This would be the equivalent of six hours and 10 minutes per day if it were evenly distributed each day.

Yesterday a petition was launched on Change.org asking the Fairfax COunty School Board to provide a uniform elementary school day of six hours and 40 mintues Monday through Friday.
 Please join this campaign: http://chn.ge/1dZn61Z.

Also, since 2007, FCPS has had a policy limiting recess to a maximum of 10 minutes per day. This is absurdly restrictive. The time for recess should be expanded.  Some Fairfax schools do allow more than 10 minutes per day for recess. However, that means that the schools are not providing the number of instructional hours required in the Standards of Accreditation.

It is critically important for Fairfax to ensure that all elementary schools meet the requirements in the Standards of Accreditation while also providing adequate time for recess. This can be accomplished by ending Monday early dismissals.