The Seattle district may be implementing a longer school day in the future, adding half an hour to the six-hour school day, according to a recent article.
School administrators are currently planning how added time could best benefit students, but are already concerned that such a plan would run into logistical barriers—namely, funding and teachers’ union pushback, according to KPLU.
If time is added, there would likely be some disagreement over what to use it for: more academics or more enrichment time for classes like arts and physical education. That debate has emerged in other districts that have implemented expanded learning models.
“There obviously has to be a commitment that it’s sincerely an effort to restore the richness of the school curriculum, and not just double-dipping of the tested subjects,” Jonathan Knapp, president of the Seattle Education Association, is quoted as saying in the article.