By MORGAN WHITE
Los Alamos

My name is Morgan White, I’m a parent of three students in the Los Alamos Public Schools. I came today (Monday) because I felt it was important that you heard the voice of at least some parents, and I could be one of them. I am worried that the voice of parents may not be heard as loudly as it should because of the midday, workday timing of this hearing. Thank you for the opportunity to offer comments.

I’d like to start by asking, whatever you decide, we must keep our students’ best interest at heart.

I am sure that everyone agrees that any changes that you make should enhance their education. So surely any changes made should ensure that we “First, do no harm”.

In these regulations it discusses that instructional hours may involve “research- or evidence-based” curriculum. I guess being from Los Alamos it will not be surprising to you that I ask you to do a bit of research regarding the changes to them. I have not seen a cost-benefit analysis of these changes, which is particularly concerning as they seem to involve unfunded mandates that may cause financial harm to communities. I will skip those concerns and consider the potential to cause educational and mental harm to students.

All too often our good intentions can have negative consequences that actually hurt the very people we intend to help.

In Los Alamos we are very fortunate to have a strong school system.  The rapid rollout of these changes will require our district to make many difficult changes with little time to prepare or adapt to them. It seems obvious listening here today we are not alone in voicing these and other concerns.

I’d like you to consider two aspects of our schedule. Our elementary schools have a history of half-day Wednesdays allowing enrichment activities for students and teachers. Our block schedule at our middle- and high-school are one of the well-established ways to give students and teachers the extended time to explore more deeply their core studies. I hear today and appreciate many other schools use of four-day weeks.

These proposed changes force all our communities to adopt a one-size fits all school day that likely will not work as well for any of us.

Other effects of schedule changes are more insidious but potentially more detrimental.

These changes will cause our teachers to work harder at tasks that it is not clear we need, and likely require that we hire more teachers to do so. Teachers are likely to do what they do well more poorly when they are given less effective time in their days, and many great teachers are likely to quit and not be there at all. This does not help our students.

More than 90% of our school students complete their required curriculum and graduate, and they appreciate the flexibility of our schedules to pursue their passions, to become themselves, be it through traditional classes or apprenticeships, but also through music, sports, cultural, or other needs. I am concerned that these changes will harm their mental health, forcing them to do work they do not value and is not required, in an environment that will be more stressful, and forcing them to miss the opportunity to pursue what is important to them and their development.

Please take the time to understand how these changes make the outcomes for all our students better before acting on this ruling.

Again, I would like to thank everyone who works so hard to help our students, thank you for looking out for their welfare.