New Bronx charter school proposes 12-hour school days, seven days a week

South Bronx charter school plans 7-day-a-week classes

FOX 5 NY's Kendall Green reports on a new South Bronx charter school set to launch this fall that plans to offer 12-hour school days, seven days a week, year-round, aiming to give working parents flexible schedules and students more structured learning time.

BRONX - A new charter school set to open in the South Bronx this fall plans to offer an unconventional schedule. 

Classes would run 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for most of the year.

What we know:

Strive Charter School, which is building a campus in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx, will operate from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week, for 50 weeks a year. 

School leaders say the model is designed to support working parents with nontraditional schedules while providing students with expanded learning time.

The school is backed by private donors and will serve students in kindergarten through fourth grade. 

Founders say the extended schedule aims to address the limited amount of time children typically spend in school compared to their overall waking hours.

"Kids actually only spend about 20% of their waking hours per year in school," said Eric Granis, one of the school’s founders, who previously helped implement a 12-hour school model at a charter school in Brooklyn. "If they are spending the rest of their waking hours playing video games or doing other things that aren’t helpful intellectually, it harms them."

While extended school days are not new, adding weekends would be a first for New York and possibly the nation, according to school leaders. 

The principal said the school will use overlapping teacher schedules, similar to staffing models in emergency rooms, to ensure continuity and prevent burnout among educators.

By the numbers:

Strive plans to enroll 325 students in its first year, with the goal of eventually serving more than 540 students. 

In-person instruction is scheduled to begin just after Labor Day. 

Parents seeking more information can visit StriveCharterSchool.org.