Southampton district considers longer school day

The Southampton school district is considering extending the school day by about an hour and three quarters under a state initiative.

New York State's Extended Learning Time grant program would provide Southampton with $2.6 million a year for two years to add roughly 300 hours a year of school time in the district's elementary school, intermediate school or both.

Southampton, one of nine districts statewide -- and the only one on Long Island -- to win a portion of a $24 million grant, is eligible because of its test scores and socioeconomic and ethnic diversity, school officials said.

Almost half of the district's 1,500 students are Hispanic, American Indian or black, and about a third of the district's students are considered economically disadvantaged, according to state figures.

Some Southampton parents questioned the time-extending proposal at a meeting of about 60 people at Southampton High School on Wednesday, saying they already juggle sports, other activities and homework.

"Where in God's name do you think you're going to extract another two hours from this kid's life?" said Rob Herrmann, whose son is in fourth grade. " . . . We're going to centralize every kid's life around school and have him sitting in school for nine hours?"

Southampton Superintendent of Schools Scott Farina said the district has not made a decision to accept the grant and wants to hear from parents over the next year.

"We would not be doing our due diligence if we didn't at least look at it," he said. "There are some appealing things to this. There are some not so appealing things, I totally agree. That's why we're here."

Southampton's school board could choose to go forward with the program in September 2015.

Other districts that won the grant are in New York City, Yonkers, Syracuse and elsewhere upstate.

In its grant application, Southampton proposed extending the school day by 108 minutes for elementary school students and 103 minutes for intermediate school students, but that could change, district officials said.

Nicholas Dyno, the district's assistant superintendent for instruction, said extended hours could allow students to come home with their homework completed and "ready to be kids." He also said it would stop students from being pulled from classes for extra help.

Roberta Hunter, a school board member who attended the meeting, said she wants to hear more from other segments of the community.

"This is a real school district and we have real problems here," she said. "We do have groups of students who are not doing well."