To the editor:

Who thinks starting school on Aug. 11 is too early? I DO!!! Starting this early doesn’t make any sense to me unless the school board is using this as a bridge to introduce us to the year-round school idea.

We are reminded on a regular basis that the school district is not receiving adequate funds from the state and yet we lengthen the semester and increase our overhead. Every day our buses run, it costs the district about $16,000. There is also the expense of paying all of the hourly employees for the extra days, not to mention the expense of cooling the schools during what typically is the hottest time of the year.

If USD 497 would extend the school day by only 30 minutes every day, we could, in effect, gain about six days over the course of the semester. This is due to the fact that the district uses the state education hourly requirement rather than the number-of-days-in-school requirement.

In addition, our students finish first semester class work on Dec. 17. Why not go to school until Dec. 22nd and gain another three days? Implementing these two simple measures would have allowed our children to start school this year on Aug. 24. I believe this is a much more reasonable start date. Please encourage your board members to request a later start for next year.

Dr. Dale P. Denning,

Lawrence