Recently, there has been a discussion about a potential new policy where teachers with elementary-aged kids will no longer be able to have their children in the classroom at the beginning of first period.
Teachers have various reasons for bringing in their kids in the morning, one being that teachers have the perk of educating their children in the same school district as them even though they might live outside of district boundaries. With this option, children of teachers are closer to them, making school drop off and pick up easier.
Students who attend Highland Elementary start school at 9:15 a.m. while the high school begins at 8:05 a.m. This means the children would have to sit through the entirety of first period, then walk themselves over to the elementary school at about the same time that the period ends.
Every teacher has faced different circumstances behind bringing their young kids to their classroom, but overall, most teachers agree that having their kids wait in their classrooms has worked best.
Many teachers have been doing this for quite some time until administrators came together to discuss this practice. It has been planned that after this year, teachers at Lake Stevens High School will no longer be able to continue this practice and will need to find some sort of alternative.
In the past, teachers with elementary school-aged children had their kids silently sit in their classrooms and leave to walk to Highland Elementary when it was time for them to get to school.
This practice was a safer alternative than having their young kids wait at a bus stop unsupervised since the walk from Lake Stevens High School to Highland Elementary is only about six minutes.
But new undisclosed concerns have pushed the district to put a stop to this practice completely.
John Balmer, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resource Services for the Lake Stevens school district, shared the following statement.
“As a district, it is our priority to support both our students and staff while ensuring that learning environments remain focused, safe, and productive. We are currently working with our community childcare partners to explore possible solutions that could help ease the childcare burden for staff, while also honoring their professional roles and responsibilities during the school day.”
While the district is looking towards different childcare alternatives, impacted teachers will be affected by schedule changes and possibly increased childcare costs.
David Marques, a business and marketing teacher at Lake Stevens High School has brought his now fifth-grade son to school since the beginning of the year, as it was the best option for him and his family.
Marques teaches Personal Finance during first period. For about a year, his son left his classroom towards the end of class to walk himself to Highland Elementary.
According to Marques, he has received no complaints from his students or parents about his son’s presence in class.
Additionally, senior Benjamin Goldberg who is in Marques’s first period class explained that he sees no downsides to having a kid in the same classroom and that as long as there are no distractions, no change needs to be made.
”I don’t think there’s any downsides to having a kid in the classroom. As long as it doesn’t distract from the learning, it’s fine,” Goldberg said.
Furthermore, some teachers have their planning during first period, so there is no possibility for their class to be distracted because there are no students present.
With all this in mind, the reason for the push back from the administration is not exactly clear. We sought a comment from Leslie Ivelia, Lake Stevens High School principal, but we were unable to obtain a response.
Marques mentioned a few alternatives; he mentioned his concern about fairness and financial implications of the policy change, which he believes is a policy throughout the whole district, not just the high school. This policy prohibiting teachers from bringing their children to school before or after school will no longer be affecting Marques because his child will be moving on to middle school, but not every teacher is in the same situation.
“There are a number of options. Most of them are things that you have to pay for unless you have a friend or family member who’s willing to do that. Maybe that’s another one, if you have a family that you could drop off your child within the morning,” Marques said.
Meanwhile, other teachers have already taken action and no longer bring their kids to school or minimize the days they come in the morning for the rest of the year.
Kaitlin Coleman, a high school teacher who teaches science, shared her experience of her first year bringing her kids to work with her. She brought her kids due to her husband working early and not being able to take them to school. Her oldest child attends Highland.
Coleman expressed concerns about a new policy that might prevent children from coming to school before class, highlighting financial implications.
According to Coleman, this unexpected cost has impacted her financial expenses as she is paying $300 each month for five hours each week for childcare before school.
Coleman believes the policy should only apply if the child disrupts the class or teacher’s work.
Childcare comes with various drawbacks for most parents, the biggest one is cost. One child can cost more than $28 an hour to send to a proper daycare. Pushing this unexpected cost onto teachers forces them to move around their budgets and cut costs in other places.
The teachers are not the only ones who will be affected by this; their children will also be forced to start their day earlier and adapt to their new complicated way of getting to school.
All and all, easy access to education should be implemented throughout the district. Teachers have the right to prioritize their children’s education if there are no legitimate concerns. On the other hand, this new policy still can be altered and there is a potential middle ground that could be met.
Everyone’s point of view should be considered when making district-wide decisions, especially when the cons outweigh the pros.
The Valhalla reached out to LSEA President Autumn Morrison and Principal Leslie Ivelia for an interview and did not receive a response.
