As promised, district officials have been analyzing this year’s new bell schedule and listening to the input we have received from the community.

Prior to the beginning of this year, the School Reform Task Force (SRTF) spent about 16-months studying the issue of school start times in our district.  The SRTF recommended changes at all three levels.

The biggest shifts in start times came at the high school and elementary levels. The high school start times were moved from 7:25 a.m. to 8 a.m. Elementary start times were moved from 9:05  a.m. to 9:28 a.m.

The task force recommended the change because research indicates
developing adolescent brains benefit from additional sleep.  The committee also felt strongly that more alert teen drivers in the mornings would benefit the entire community.

The feedback we have received from high school students and parents is the later start time has been beneficial to student alertness in the mornings. This is especially important as many of our high school students drive to school each morning.

About 80% of high school and middle school parents who participated in a recent survey said the later start time has been physically and educationally sound for their students.

Feedback we have received at the elementary level has indicated there have been some challenges with the elementary start and end times. These challenges have included childcare in the mornings and after school activities.

Nearly 80% of elementary parents who participated in a recent survey support earlier start and end times at the elementary level.

Busing was a major factor in our decision making process. Due to the budget cuts we are in the process of making, there will be more group stops at the high school level in 2012-13. If our buses are making fewer stops, we are able to compress route times.  The compression of route times also allows for the consolidation of routes.

Our high school buses will have a higher percentage of occupied seats in the mornings than they have had historically, and our buses will improve their fuel efficiency when making fewer stops.

We will also be making changes in the transportation provided to private and parochial schools. This will free up additional buses which will assist in consolidation efforts.

This combination of community feedback and the changes we are making to transportation have allowed us to compress our bell schedules for next year.

In 2012-13, the school day will run as follows:

We were able to maintain later start times at the middle and high school levels while bringing elementary back to about where it was in 2010-11. Thanks to everyone who gave us their opinions in our surveys.