More school time? Just what to do?

With 300 additional hours of school time each year, students could fit more music, art, and physical education classes into their schedules. There could be more time for individual teacher instruction and maybe even less homework.

Brockton is ready to give extended learning time a try, but officials in Middleborough, Norwood, and Wareham want to hear more from parents, teachers, and students before they make up their minds.

"The opportunities that expanding the time would give us and for the students is attractive," said Theresa Craig, Middleborough's coordinator of school curriculum and professional development, "but what we have to decide is if it fits for our community as we move ahead."

Middleborough, Norwood, and Wareham were among 28 districts awarded grants by the state Department of Education last October to explore how to add 300 hours of learning time to the academic year at specified schools.

"Three hundred hours is a lot of time. That's what we are struggling with," said Norwood assistant school superintendent Peg Dougherty.

Brockton received a state planning grant in 2006 for Gilmore Academy and Huntington School, and is now seeking an implementation grant to offer an extended day at Gilmore, a middle school, starting next fall. Staff at Huntington decided against pursuing it at that school, according to Jocelyn Meek, communications officer for the Brockton public schools.

Meek said the city was recently notified by the state Department of Education that its implementation plan qualifies for funding, but that it was not among those districts receiving money at this time. The state provides $1,300 per student in additional aid. "We are in a holding pattern," she said, noting that depending on how much funding the Legislature provides for the overall program, Brockton might still receive money for next fall.

The state began offering planning and implementation grants in fiscal 2006, and so far eight districts and 18 schools have extended their school days, according to Massachusetts 2020, a nonprofit educational institution that promotes extended learning time. Most districts have focused on a longer school day, though they can also look at adding days to the school calendar.

Since last fall, the three local districts have been engaged in a flurry of planning and outreach to gauge interest and develop ideas for expanded time at Norwood Middle School, Wareham Middle School, Middleborough's Henry B. Burkland Elementary School, and its John T. Nichols Jr. Middle School. Districts that decide to seek state funds to implement expanded learning time in the fall of 2009 need to file a preliminary application by this July and a final application by December.

The opportunity to offer more school hours is appealing on a number of fronts, say school officials.

"A six-and-a-quarter-hour school day doesn't really allow for a lot of instruction time for students," said Jan Rotella, director of curriculum and instruction for the Wareham Public Schools. "For middle school students, especially, every time you change classes it interrupts their train of thought."

"Many schools have gotten that kind of time by doing away with band, phys ed, those kinds of classes," she said. "But that's not healthy for kids. If at all possible, we don't want to go that way."

"Teachers are struggling now to cover all the content they need to cover in the school day," said Craig, Middleborough's curriculum coordinator, "and still find enough time to address the full needs of the child, the enrichment challenges. Expanding the school day would give us more opportunity to meet those needs."

Districts also see more school time as a chance to improve student achievement, especially in schools not meeting federal performance standards set under the No Child Left Behind Act. The schools that Middleborough, Norwood, and Wareham are considering for expanded learning time have all failed to meet those performance standards in certain categories.

But school officials say that does not necessarily mean expanded time is right for every school.

Retired Weymouth school superintendent Joseph E. Rull, a consultant for Massachusetts 2020 who is helping the three local communities as well as Mashpee and Taunton with their planning efforts, noted that expanded learning time is not the only goal of the state's program.

"You are redesigning the school day with additional time built in to it," he said. "What schools are doing in the planning process is looking at what is happening during the course of their school day now and how we can do things better." He said that exercise can lead to improvements even if the school opts not to expand its learning time.

Rull said an important feature of the planning process is the outreach to the school community.

"We stress communications," he said. "It's so important that . . . all the various stakeholders are aware of the grant, aware of the process." Rull said it is also important that participants "keep an open mind. It's a whole learning curve to fully understand what it's about."

In Middleborough, Norwood, and Wareham, planning committees have invited public discussion through forums and surveys. Reaction has been predictably mixed, officials said.

In Wareham, Rotella said she has been impressed by the positive comments. "Many parents feel the expanded learning time would give their children opportunities for more individualized instruction with their teachers," she said. "And they like the fact that if their children have additional time working with their teachers, they would possibly have less homework."

But there are also concerns.

"Parents want to be sure that if the school day is extended, that students are getting quality instruction and are getting some real return on the additional time," Rotella said.

Dougherty said some Norwood parents are uneasy about having their children arriving home in the dark.

Regardless of the outcome, officials say their planning efforts are generating some productive discussion.

"I'm hopeful that we will be able to go forward" to seek the implementation grant, Dougherty said. "But even if it doesn't suit our needs, we will have to find other ways to perhaps capture back more time within the school day."