TAMPA - Hillsborough County students may soon be getting out of school early one day a month, giving teachers more time to plan lessons but leaving parents with one more scheduling problem to overcome.
"Unless the schools provide free after-school care for those two hours, it's going to be a real problem for me," said Omayra Mercado, who has a daughter at Randall Middle School and another at Newsome High School. "I can't leave my job in the middle of the afternoon to pick up my daughters, and I don't want them home alone."
The plan is part of a tentative agreement between the district and the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association. The pact must be voted on by the schoolteachers union, and a school board vote tentatively is scheduled for Oct. 21.
If the plan is approved by both sides, the students will be released two hours earlier than their usual dismissal time one Wednesday each month. The first scheduled date of early-release would be Oct. 29.
Details of the plan are outlined in letters to parents being sent home with students and through automated telephone messages.
School officials aren't sure what reaction the move will spark among parents.
"Typically, with things like this, it is not real until shortly before the first early release day," district spokesman Steve Hegarty wrote in an e-mail this morning to TBO.com. "We are notifying people that it has been proposed. We will tell them if/when it is approved. And we will remind them when it is imminent."
Parents contacted today had mixed reactions. Some said ending school early would cause a hardship for parents; others sympathized with teachers
Patricia Rossie-King's daughter is a freshman at Brandon High School, is on the swim team and car pools with other students to the Brandon Sports and Aquatics Center for practice.
"The issue is in transportation from home to those after-school activities or having the students stay at school for a couple hours until they go to practice,'' Rossie-King said. "It would be a hardship."
Dexter Johnson, executive director of child care services for the Tampa Metropolitan YMCA, which operates one of the school district's largest after-school programs, said his organization already is bracing for the extra early-release days.
"We're fully prepared to accommodate these changes," he said. "And there will be no extra charge for parents."
The YMCA serves about 2,000 children, ages 5 thorough 11, in its after-school child care programs.
Jean Clements, president of the teachers association, said the bargaining team has recommended approval of the overall contract, which includes the early-release provision.
Ballots have been sent to teachers and are due back Oct. 20. The union will count them that night, and the district is expected to vote on the contract the next day, Clements said.
"Every expectation is that both bodies will support it," she said. "The teachers are for it. Planning time has been a big issue for teachers for quite a while."
Hegarty, the district spokesman, said school officials are taking pains to make sure parents know the changes are coming.
"We have sent notes home and sent automated phone messages," he said. "Several schools have put it on their marquees. It has been on the Web site all week. It has been in the newspaper. So it is out there, and I haven't had many questions."
Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com. Marilyn Brown, Christian Wade, Lois Kindle and Jamie Pilarczyk contributed to this story.
Copyright 2008 Tampa Tribune & WFLA
