Petition: Later MCPS school start times

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If swim practices are held in the morning, even better, your child practices before showing up at school at 8am or 8:15.

They do before school and after school, not including another outside activity plus school activities and homework. Don't your kids have activities?

No we just stare up at a ceiling. I do hope our kids graduate HS.

[Anonymous]

Yea. They could do this. By having built more and smaller ES and make nearly all of then walking schools. So busses only for HS and MS so everyone can start at 8:30.

[Anonymous]

Let's see, land is a million an acre in Bethesda, and not much land left. And then the staff to run all these extra schools (teachers, counselors, cafeteria workers, bldg services, etc) would cost a fortune.

MCPS doesn't build more schools, they make the schools they have bigger (because they think economies of scale, but instead they build em too big and kids fall through the cracks).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If swim practices are held in the morning, even better, your child practices before showing up at school at 8am or 8:15.

They do before school and after school, not including another outside activity plus school activities and homework. Don't your kids have activities?

No we just stare up at a ceiling. I do hope our kids graduate HS.

Why wouldn't they graduate? They have all A's, and in high level classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's see, land is a million an acre in Bethesda, and not much land left. And then the staff to run all these extra schools (teachers, counselors, cafeteria workers, bldg services, etc) would cost a fortune.

MCPS doesn't build more schools, they make the schools they have bigger (because they think economies of scale, but instead they build em too big and kids fall through the cracks).

Kids can fall through the cracks at any school, size is just one factor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ICYMI: countless private school kids get up at the crack of dawn and endure a lengthy commute from the burbs to DC or across counties for their early morning start. And those kids will excel in college and the workplace.

As a product of private schools, I can report that you aren’t allowed to sleep through class.

Perhaps mcps simply needs to raise the bar and crack the whip?

Say what? Many private schools have everyone including HSers start at 8:30 or 9.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:So many decisions are made based on free transportation. Snow days, flooded roads, start times, end times. It’s ridiculous. We need to do away with school buses, boost the public buses and make decisions based on what’s best for our kids.

You want elementary school kids to get on RideOn buses alone?

Even if you limited it to HS, RideOn routes could never scale up to meet the demand before and after school.

In plenty of cities ES kids get in the bus. At the very least MS/HS kids get on the bus and train.

I have a hard time imagining my 6-year-old getting on a city bus. Actually no, I know exactly what would happen.

Regardless, let's say, as you seem to suggest, we keep buses for ES, and have MS/HS ride non-school public transportation.

How would that work? RideOn only carries 57,000 riders per day. MCPS reports 100,000 students ride the bus, typically twice per day. That's an extra 200,000 rides.

Now, obviously not all of those are middle/high school students, but you're still looking at increasing rides per day by 3-4x.

Worse, those rides obviously aren't spread throughout the day or throughout the system. Most of the riders would be going to a handful of places. But they'd need to get picked up from wider range of bus stops than currently exist. So many, many more buses would be needed. For only on some routes that pass schools, and only for a couple hours each day.

In an area of higher density housing, workplaces, and transit, this could be workable. You would expect a higher percentage of walkers. And higher-capacity rail service carrying some of the burden. But this wouldn't work in a place like MoCo.

I don't think you're familiar with how RideOn and Metrobus work in Montgomery County. You go to a bus stop, you get on the bus, you take the bus until you get to your stop, then you get off. And many of the routes have different frequencies, depending on time of day.

I don't think you understand the massive increase in resources that would be necessary to accommodate potentially 200,000 more rides each day. And high schools and middle schools aren't transit hubs in the current county bus routes.

And what about the wide swaths of the county that aren't anywhere near a bus stop?

The great thing about buses is that they can accommodate more riders.

Nobody is proposing that students should take public transit (RideOn, Metrobus, Metro rail, MARC train, Purple Line when it opens) where there isn't any.

Not to mention that the "wide swaths" of the county that aren't anywhere near a bus stop also don't have most of the people. The wide swaths of the county that are near bus stops have most of the people.

I really can't tell if you're being serious here. Buses have a fixed capacity. What you seem to be describing-- moving 200,000 daily school bus rides onto a system currently providing 57,000 daily rises-- greatly exceeds the capacity. Besides that, the routes are not set up to efficiently carry people to schools.

Could you solve the capacity, coverage, and problems? Sure, but you'd basically have to recreate the MCPS bus routes.

Kids are already taking public buses to and from school. Somehow they are able to do something you consider impossible.

Blair, Northwood, TPMS, SSIMS, and Eastern all have many students who commute via Ride On.

You mean magnet programs that probably don't have bus service.

No this is local kids in the regular programs. The HSs there are part of a choice process so you might have someone who lives near Blair going to Northwood and they often take the regular bus. They could make later start times for schools in those areas easily.

[Anonymous]

Why won't MCPS buy more buses and increase salaries for bus drivers so they can hire more? They spent tons of money on PR for the central office this year and on lawyers. Why not spend that on students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why won't MCPS buy more buses and increase salaries for bus drivers so they can hire more? They spent tons of money on PR for the central office this year and on lawyers. Why not spend that on students?

That is the 162,000$ question. Ask the BOE, hold them accountable. Vote knowledgeably in the next BOE election.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ICYMI: countless private school kids get up at the crack of dawn and endure a lengthy commute from the burbs to DC or across counties for their early morning start. And those kids will excel in college and the workplace.

As a product of private schools, I can report that you aren’t allowed to sleep through class.

Perhaps mcps simply needs to raise the bar and crack the whip?

Say what? Many private schools have everyone including HSers start at 8:30 or 9.

Ok, go back to the private board. You clearly don’t see the issue or difference. Much easier to do with no bus service and smaller schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why won't MCPS buy more buses and increase salaries for bus drivers so they can hire more? They spent tons of money on PR for the central office this year and on lawyers. Why not spend that on students?

Your funny.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I think the down county consortium should test this approach and use a later start time at one of the DCC high schools. The density of ES is high enough here that you might even be able to free up the right number of busses by give people a choice between a late vs early ES. This would let MCPS test the idea without forcing anyone into it. If enough people want it, you can grow the number of schools doing it and if it causes issues or no one actually wants to live with what a later hs start time means, they can discontinue it.

How about HS 9:00a-3:45p. Is that really too late to start practice for athletic teens?

Our swim starts at 3:45, so yes, slight issue. And, there are morning practices as well. Our school swim practices start either early in the AM or 3 PM. Not including sports and other activities for our kids. Plus homework. That 45 minutes after school is a big deal. And, many parents need older kids to watch younger kids after school. How would that work when there are not enough after school spots as it is?

My kid goes to (private) HS 845-315, it works just fine. Other school systems and communities have figured this out.

Sure, if you're willing to give MCPS enough money to pay for twice as manybuses and drivers.

many school systems have HS start last so the adolescent brain, with its shifted circadian rhythm, starts later, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the down county consortium should test this approach and use a later start time at one of the DCC high schools. The density of ES is high enough here that you might even be able to free up the right number of busses by give people a choice between a late vs early ES. This would let MCPS test the idea without forcing anyone into it. If enough people want it, you can grow the number of schools doing it and if it causes issues or no one actually wants to live with what a later hs start time means, they can discontinue it.

How about HS 9:00a-3:45p. Is that really too late to start practice for athletic teens?

Our swim starts at 3:45, so yes, slight issue. And, there are morning practices as well. Our school swim practices start either early in the AM or 3 PM. Not including sports and other activities for our kids. Plus homework. That 45 minutes after school is a big deal. And, many parents need older kids to watch younger kids after school. How would that work when there are not enough after school spots as it is?

My kid goes to (private) HS 845-315, it works just fine. Other school systems and communities have figured this out.

Sure, if you're willing to give MCPS enough money to pay for twice as manybuses and drivers.

many school systems have HS start last so the adolescent brain, with its shifted circadian rhythm, starts later, too.

And many kids are fine with the earlier start time. Here’s an idea. Enforce bedtime. Be a parent.

[Anonymous]

Sign the petition!

[Anonymous]

When will they ever have the time to bring this up in the current school year? Look at what's happening with the BOE and Superintendent. Sad.