SJUSD Savings Time: 20 Minutes Off/On

By now, parents of incoming Kindergarten students probably know there will be more children in each classroom when school starts on Monday.

In case you missed it, that bit of excitement – unique in our county to San Jose Unified – was conveniently announced right after school got out in June, after many families had already missed deadlines for pursuing other private school options.

For its next bit of last-minute announcements, principals across the district were notifying families this week that the Kindergarten day was also shrinking by 20 minutes as the result of a tricky teacher prep time issue. For students at early-rising Booksin School, that meant class would end at 11:40.

But wait. Nevermind. On Wednesday, principals across the district were probably contacting parents to tell them that the four-hour school day had been restored. Because, as of today, SJUSD Kindergarten will last four hours.

In a letter shared with WGx, Superintendent Don Iglesias had this to say on the latest developments:

This summer has been a time of transition in SJUSD as we prepare for the beginning of the 2009-10 school year. We have wrestled with the effects of our state budget deficits on the educational program and District services that support the classroom and your student. One of the topics discussed with our teachers’ association this summer has been the length of the Kindergarten day. We recognize that your school principal may have communicated to you that the Kinder day would be a total of three hours and forty minutes, which is a twenty minute shorter day than recent years. On Monday, August 10th, the District and the teachers’ association (SJTA) agreed that Kinder instruction would return to the four hour day. We apologize for any confusion these messages may have caused.

Bottom Line: SJUSD Kindergarten is still a four-hour school day, but the student-teacher ratio is 30-1 (all elementary grades).

So no matter what time it is, the District and its Teachers have returned to 1996, the year class ratios were triumphantly lowered to 20-1 for kindergarten through Second Grade. So WGx hopes no one is celebrating having avoided the 20-minute reduction.

And, WGx wouldn’t recommend setting your watch by the clocks at the San Jose Unified School District just yet. School doesn’t start until Monday.