It's 3 p.m. and school is out. All the school buildings sit empty. Where have all the children gone? How many went home to an empty house, then sat for an hour or more mindlessly watching television until mom or dad came home? How many had been instructed to stay in the house, not open the door to anyone, and tell callers that “Mom is in the shower”?
Children in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, have an alternative. Many of our students spend the time between the end of the traditional school day and the end of their parents' work day in the safe environment of their school building, participating in a wide variety of mentally and physically challenging activities. They do not sit watching television or spend several hours riveted in fear that someone may come in and snatch them.
In a short time, this program has become extremely popular. Eighty percent of the parents of the 5,400 children in grades K–8 are participating. (The Murfreesboro City Schools includes no high schools.)
Does it cost money to extend learning time and to provide a safe environment for children? Of course it does, but Murfreesboro has rearranged resources to create affordable extended-day, extended-year services for school children's families without assessing additional taxes.
Creative Programs
Murfreesboro City Schools began its extended learning time program in 1986. Today, Murfreesboro's nine elementary schools, which include grades K–6 and K–8, are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., five days a week, 52 weeks a year (not including major holidays).
We meet our traditional school time requirements for a six-and-a-half hour day, 180 days per year. The school system then publicizes the additional services offered during extended hours, and parents choose the programs that interest them. We offer more than 100 courses in the areas of recreation, academics, arts, and life skills (see fig. 1). In addition to courses typically associated with these areas, students and their parents select offerings as wide-ranging as the martial arts, dinosaur club, quiz bowl, crazy crafts, cooking, test taking, and aerospace art.
Figure 1. A Sample of After-School Activities at Murfreesboro Schools
Extending School Hours: A Capital Idea - table
Recreation | Academics | Arts | Life Skills |
|---|---|---|---|
| Karate | Building Reading Skills 1–8 | Clayworks | Computer |
| Rollerblading | Basic Math Skills 1–8 | Origami | Spanish Club |
| Aerobics | Geography Club | Band | Gardening |
| Outdoor Games | Science Club | Orchestra | Cooking |
| Lego Club | Quiz Bowl | Chorus | Newsroom |
| Barbie Club | Brain Teasers | Guitar | Sewing |
| Micro Machines | Science Club for Girls | Watercolors | Education Ass'ts Training |
| Fun Fitness | Story Hour | Calligraphy | Office Ass'ts Training |
| GI Joe Club | Homework | Musical Coaching | Self-Defense for Girls |
| Puzzlemania | Fun With Language | Play Production | Building Study Habits |
| Chess & Backgammon | Study Skills | Paper and Print Making | Test Taking |
| Dinosaur Club |
How can a school district keep its doors open more than twice the traditional time and provide high-quality services without asking taxpayers for additional dollars? The key to Murfreesboro's program is service at an affordable cost.
We employ the simple business approach of supply and demand. We develop extended time programs that are attractive enough for parents to want to purchase them for their children. And they do. Revenues from parents far exceed $1 million per year, with parents paying only about a dollar per hour per child. No child is excluded because a parent cannot or will not pay.
Using Resources Flexibly
To keep the programs affordable, we identified many existing assets that could be tapped to support the extended learning time. These assets include capital, financial, personnel, and parent and community resources.
Capital resources. Murfreesboro's capital assets include nine school campuses valued in excess of $65 million. These schools traditionally sat idle all but 180 days a year, as all children were sent home by 3 p.m. No profit-making business could survive allowing an investment of this magnitude to sit idle for so many hours of the year, and schools shouldn't either.
Financial resources. Murfreesboro receives approximately $300,000 for Chapter 1 Programs and $150,000 from Tennessee's Career Ladder Extended Contract program. These funds are primarily used to pay personnel who work during the extended hours/days. This use of categorical program funds contributes to greater efficiency, guarantees supplemental instruction, and successfully addresses the issue of pullout classes debated for decades. Support staff do not report for work until 11 a.m., so the morning hours are dedicated to core academics.
More public revenue also is available because of the interest in providing quality child care. Murfreesboro City Schools receives $100,000 annually from the Department of Human Services because the extended time program is meeting school-age childcare needs.
In addition, we were able to transfer some pupil transportation funds to the program because the savings generated by parents providing transportation more than covers incidental costs to the school district. The district established an endowment fund to allow those who benefit from extended time to contribute, especially businesses that receive an indirect benefit through their employees using the program.
Human Resources. We also capitalized on already existing human resources by using them more flexibly. Changing the way human resources are used is always more difficult than managing capital assets, but it can be done. Flexible time schedules have been set up for teachers and educational assistants. Support personnel work from 11 to 5 for 220 days instead of 180. Traditionally, regular classroom teachers worked from 7:45 to 3:15. But now, regular classroom teachers leave work at 1:45 for a quarter of the year, leaving 67.5 hours to be assigned during extended hours or days (see fig. 2).
Figure 2. Schedule Options at Murfreesboro Schools
Extending School Hours: A Capital Idea - table 2
Type of Day | Hourly Schedule | Total Time |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional Teacher Day | 7:45-3:15 | 7.5 hrs × 180 days = 1,350 hrs. |
| Early Flex Teacher Day | 7:45-1:45 | 6 hrs × 220 days = 1,320 hrs. |
| Late Flex Teacher Day | 11:00-5:00 | 6 hrs × 220 days = 1,320 hrs. |
| Educational Assistants | 11:00-5:00 | 6 hrs × 220 days = 1,320 hrs. |
| Midday Assistants—4 hours per day |
Some regular positions have also been converted to cash for use during extended learning time. Our largest K–8 school gave up 15 percent of its allocated positions (worth $297,500) so those funds could be used for other programs during regular and extended time. Part of the money provides each teacher with a midday assistant for 20 hours per week. The remainder pays for highly skilled people (but not necessarily certified teachers) who contract to teach special interest courses during extended time.
In addition, a large supply of skilled college students and parents from our community are available to work for minimum wage during extended hours. The availability of qualified workers at low wages allows us to maintain a low adult-to-student ratio (approximately 1 to 10). Once again, the business approach to managing extended time prevails: a large labor supply enables the school system to pay low wages.
Part-time positions, the free services of youth organizations, and other volunteers also reduce labor costs, with valuable educational services offered by groups such as Scouts, 4-H Clubs, and Boys/Girls Clubs.
Positive Results
- A doubling of the time school buildings are in use, with 67 percent of that time dedicated to high-quality education activities under the direction of licensed teachers.
- Additional discretionary money available to the school system.
- A safe environment for children.
- A better match between the child's school day and parents' work day.
- Increased support from business and industry (in part, because our schedule better accommodates their employees).
- New approaches to staff development and teacher planning time, made possible by the use of midday assistants.
Many possibilities exist to better use our capital investment in school facilities and human and financial resources. If we don't begin to look at these possibilities, private for-profit organizations, charter schools, and others will increasingly be competing for students, particularly if we move toward a voucher system.
We must demonstrate that we can use time in school creatively and productively, under the constraints of existing resources. In Murfreesboro, a business approach is the answer, allowing the system to improve the services offered to students, gain the respect of business owners, and increase community support for public education.
