PG is changing start and dismissal times with less than 6 months notice
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Anonymous
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Just expressing severe disappointment and annoyance with this decision.
1) I am annoyed the reasoning is transportation issues when the county does not provide transportation for all students. 2) 730 is too early for HS students AND it is too early for elementary school students. Elementary school kids need 9-13 hours of sleep on average. So to get up at 630, which is reasonable for catching the bus and also for us walkers who walk 20minutes, bedtime would need to be 630-730. Research shows absences increase with early start times for this age. And while it also shows marginal increases in math for disadvantaged students, its marginal. 3) You cant make these types of announcements for the next school year with less than 6 months of notice. They havent even put out arrival and dismissal times so people cant plan. |
Anonymous
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Equally annoyed for slightly different reasons.
BUT they haven't made the decision yet so people can still chime in on the proposal. FWIW - the majority of PGPCS elementary schools already start at 7:45 so a shift to 7:30 wouldn't be a huge impact on those kids. I have kids in each category so am impacted no matter who gets the early start. If I knew that shifting start times would fix the bus situation, I would be all on board. PGCPS has bungled this announcement with incorrect figures and right now I have very little trust in them. |
Anonymous
| Wait what has happened? I do not have any emails… |
Anonymous
| I.e. links please? |
Anonymous
| Drive your kid. Problem solved. |
Anonymous
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PGCPS announced last week that they were moving to consolidated start times of 7:30, 8:30 and 9:30 and then on Friday clarified that it was going to be 7:30 for all elementary schools, 8:30 for Middle and K-8 schools, and 9:30 for high schools. They put out a flyer than gave the number of schools impacted which was completely incorrect. They took down the second posting late Friday afternoon.
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Anonymous
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"The vast majority of schools are expected to see no change in bell times, or a shift of 15 minutes or less." - According to PGCPS world the "vast majority" = 49%
In reality, 22% schools and 30% of students would see a change of an hour or more. In the end, the plan might be ok but they need to stop blow smoke up our @sses pretending it's not a big change. https://www.pgcps.org/offices/transportation/school-start--end-times https://www.pgcps.org/offices/transportation/transportation-updates |
Anonymous
No its not solved because my kid needs to exercise. He is high energy and it helps him focus for the day. I am doing what is best for my child. Bugger off with the driving and congestion in neighborhoods. |
Anonymous
What time is dismissal for a majority of those schools because 130-2pm dismissal is ridiculous. Also, aftercare is insanely expensive and there are not enough spots to being with. And again, my issue is that 730 isnt acceptable start times for any kid to get a sufficient amount of sleep. Like lets move away from that being an option for any student and see what transpires. As the other person posted majority is 49%. My student would need to be in their seat around the time they normally are getting dressed. AND for those of us who walk, that early start is walking in the dark. For those that bus, it means dark mornings at the bus stops. Again for the smallest and most vulnerable kids. |
Anonymous
Let us also acknowledge that PG does not provide transportation for elementary students within 1.5 mile radius. Thats A LOT of cars if walking in the morning is unsafe because of dark mornings. I wont even mention how few crossing guards there are. |
Anonymous
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When was this proposed? Why wasn’t there an opportunity to comment? I don’t understand how it will solve the bus driver shortage issues.
I would bet money there will be some backtracking here. |
Anonymous
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Loudoun county here- These are the times that we currently have. I believe it only works because of the high numbers of SAHMs that we have.
Start times aren't the issue- it's the end times. 2:10/2:40 is too early for anyone who works out of the home. High schoolers do like the later times, but it means that they can't watch younger siblings, school practices are held before school at like 6am and they can't have after school jobs. Less time for studying too. I wish schools could be in session 8-3:30. Or 9-4. That would be my dream. DH and I do stagger who drops off vs pick ups, but getting out at 2pm is absolutely not workable with either of our jobs. Just a lot of aftercare for kids. (Which I think was the school's plan after all. More aftercare= less county provided buses = cost savings for the school). |
Anonymous
The more people pay for aftercare, the less buses that they have to provide. |
Anonymous
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So, I just read through the audit and there are a lot of recommendations that make sense. One thing that is crazy is that something like 22% of riders are people who live within the walk zone but have waivers.
Big picture is that they have too many schools that start at 7:45 and too few that start at 8:30 and 9:30. It looks like their solution to that is to move all the high schools away from 7:45 to a 9:30 start. In doing that they need to move the rest of the ES to 7:30 if they want uniform start times. On paper, it make sense but it practice it is a hard sell. If you are interested, here is a link to the audit. https://wtop.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/more-transportation-audit-1.pdf |
Anonymous
Ill be honest. My kid is a walker and it is completely unsafe for him to walk on his own. I have to walk with him. Our street has no sidewalks. There are three cars parked at the top of our street- that I have already submitted complaints about- that block visual for cars turning right onto our street. There are ZERO crossing guards. There is a two lane street that people regularly speed on and do not stop for pedestrians. On multiple occasions, we have had people swerve around those stopped. The pedestrian crossing signs are misplaced (i.e. do not line up where the "crossing" is) and do not light up or flash. The street in question does not have stop signs at all directions. In addition to that crossing, he has to cross three other residential streets. I didnt even realize I could ask for a waiver! We have plenty of people in the neighborhood who would walk but its not safe for the kids to do it solo. |