Howard and Anne Arundel delays high school start time to healthier times. Will MCPS follow?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of course, there are pros and cons in every scenario. You need to get your priorities straight. If you are mostly concerned about teenage health, depression, etc you can make starting HS later a priority and work around that. If not, then no point to discuss.

+1. Also ES parents should remember that their kid will be in HS pretty soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 and 8:30 am. I know MCPS delayed to 7:45 several years ago. But is that enough?

They already went over this and the problem is that changing high school times would negatively impact elementary and middle school times

Blah blah blah.I spent years and years waiting for elementary school to start at 9:25. My kids would get up at 6:30 and there almost 3 hours til school started. Send those kids to school earlier!

Sure, you say that. I'm in Loudoun and our elementary school runs 7:10-2:10. 2:10 is so ridiculously early that few parents can work and not have to pay for aftercare. 2:10 is middle of the day.

Exactly this. Starting later for ES is not a perfect solution. It comes with its own set of cons such as afternoon childcare like the PO mentioned and younger kids getting in the bus in dark/early morning hours as opposed to HSers. Further changing the times would still only be one factor in teen health that would still only be viable if the teen went to bed at a reasonable hour. As someone else mentioned, solve for the problems in the Bell Study and then this can be brought up again.

[Anonymous]

MCPS is too big. Changing times is too hard and disruptive. Plus sports, how on earth could the kids practice? There's a reason our teams do better than the districts with late start times.

[Anonymous]

I'm in AACPS. Literally every concern/issue/complaint in this thread about why it "can't" happen in MoCo was raised in AACPS as well.

The busses did, indeed, end up being a bit of a fiasco this year, but it sounds like that's been an across-the-board issue with the lack of bus drivers, just slightly exacerbated by the new start times.

The rest of the issue work themselves out.
Sure, some families relied on the high school kids to pick up the elementary school kids, and so now they need after care. But you also had a bunch of families who no longer need morning care, because their high school kid can get the elem kid to school, or the parents can now take them on their way to work. And of course After care for elem kids shifted their times.

Extra curriculars shifted their times - some are now before school and some are just a little later.

It's too soon to see if it makes any direct difference in student achievement, but after a TON of hand wringing over the last year and a half, people have now basically adjusted and everything is fine - and the teenagers are getting more sleep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is too big. Changing times is too hard and disruptive. Plus sports, how on earth could the kids practice? There's a reason our teams do better than the districts with late start times.

Right! Sports! Who cares if health and academics suffer as long as our kids don't have to adjust their practice times!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is too big. Changing times is too hard and disruptive. Plus sports, how on earth could the kids practice? There's a reason our teams do better than the districts with late start times.

and sports are so important... everything else should be second

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 and 8:30 am. I know MCPS delayed to 7:45 several years ago. But is that enough?

They already went over this and the problem is that changing high school times would negatively impact elementary and middle school times

Blah blah blah.I spent years and years waiting for elementary school to start at 9:25. My kids would get up at 6:30 and there almost 3 hours til school started. Send those kids to school earlier!

Sure, you say that. I'm in Loudoun and our elementary school runs 7:10-2:10. 2:10 is so ridiculously early that few parents can work and not have to pay for aftercare. 2:10 is middle of the day.

Exactly this. Starting later for ES is not a perfect solution. It comes with its own set of cons such as afternoon childcare like the PO mentioned and younger kids getting in the bus in dark/early morning hours as opposed to HSers. Further changing the times would still only be one factor in teen health that would still only be viable if the teen went to bed at a reasonable hour. As someone else mentioned, solve for the problems in the Bell Study and then this can be brought up again.

Childcare is always going to be an issue regardless of the exact start/end times because the school day is shorter than a typical work day. Right now a lot of parents have to use both before AND aftercare. There's a park near our ES that always has a group of unsupervised kids in the AM because they aren't allowed into school until 9am (and if they come on campus before then admin will call the parents).

There's been plenty of research about later bell times being better for teens and leading to improved academic performance. Anyone who still thinks this is just a matter of teens simply needing to "go to bed at a reasonable hour" is uninformed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course, there are pros and cons in every scenario. You need to get your priorities straight. If you are mostly concerned about teenage health, depression, etc you can make starting HS later a priority and work around that. If not, then no point to discuss.

+1. Also ES parents should remember that their kid will be in HS pretty soon.

And conversely, all HS kids were once in ES too. Maybe we can switch when my kids start HS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 and 8:30 am. I know MCPS delayed to 7:45 several years ago. But is that enough?

They already went over this and the problem is that changing high school times would negatively impact elementary and middle school times

Blah blah blah.I spent years and years waiting for elementary school to start at 9:25. My kids would get up at 6:30 and there almost 3 hours til school started. Send those kids to school earlier!

Seriously. If they are concerned about health, the High School and elementary school start times should be flipped.

My kid has sports directly after school. They wouldn't get to do their sports which would even more directly impact their health. Kids work, have activities, sports, which make it much harder to get out later. Plus, the bus issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in AACPS. Literally every concern/issue/complaint in this thread about why it "can't" happen in MoCo was raised in AACPS as well.

The busses did, indeed, end up being a bit of a fiasco this year, but it sounds like that's been an across-the-board issue with the lack of bus drivers, just slightly exacerbated by the new start times.

The rest of the issue work themselves out.
Sure, some families relied on the high school kids to pick up the elementary school kids, and so now they need after care. But you also had a bunch of families who no longer need morning care, because their high school kid can get the elem kid to school, or the parents can now take them on their way to work. And of course After care for elem kids shifted their times.

Extra curriculars shifted their times - some are now before school and some are just a little later.

It's too soon to see if it makes any direct difference in student achievement, but after a TON of hand wringing over the last year and a half, people have now basically adjusted and everything is fine - and the teenagers are getting more sleep.

Glad to hear it PP. Unfortunately MCPS students and parents are too fragile to make such a big change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 and 8:30 am. I know MCPS delayed to 7:45 several years ago. But is that enough?

They already went over this and the problem is that changing high school times would negatively impact elementary and middle school times

Blah blah blah.I spent years and years waiting for elementary school to start at 9:25. My kids would get up at 6:30 and there almost 3 hours til school started. Send those kids to school earlier!

Sure, you say that. I'm in Loudoun and our elementary school runs 7:10-2:10. 2:10 is so ridiculously early that few parents can work and not have to pay for aftercare. 2:10 is middle of the day.

Exactly this. Starting later for ES is not a perfect solution. It comes with its own set of cons such as afternoon childcare like the PO mentioned and younger kids getting in the bus in dark/early morning hours as opposed to HSers. Further changing the times would still only be one factor in teen health that would still only be viable if the teen went to bed at a reasonable hour. As someone else mentioned, solve for the problems in the Bell Study and then this can be brought up again.

Childcare is always going to be an issue regardless of the exact start/end times because the school day is shorter than a typical work day. Right now a lot of parents have to use both before AND aftercare. There's a park near our ES that always has a group of unsupervised kids in the AM because they aren't allowed into school until 9am (and if they come on campus before then admin will call the parents).

There's been plenty of research about later bell times being better for teens and leading to improved academic performance. Anyone who still thinks this is just a matter of teens simply needing to "go to bed at a reasonable hour" is uninformed.

True unless you're a Sagittarius and then it's all different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is too big. Changing times is too hard and disruptive. Plus sports, how on earth could the kids practice? There's a reason our teams do better than the districts with late start times.

Right! Sports! Who cares if health and academics suffer as long as our kids don't have to adjust their practice times!

Your spoiled kid could just go to be earlier so others health and academics don't suffer. Its time to step up and be a parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 and 8:30 am. I know MCPS delayed to 7:45 several years ago. But is that enough?

We solved this ourselves by setting our clocks ahead for 2 hours. It's like HS starts later. You should give it a try.

Now this is an excellent solution!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is too big. Changing times is too hard and disruptive. Plus sports, how on earth could the kids practice? There's a reason our teams do better than the districts with late start times.

Right! Sports! Who cares if health and academics suffer as long as our kids don't have to adjust their practice times!

Your spoiled kid could just go to be earlier so others health and academics don't suffer. Its time to step up and be a parent.

Right, cause it's all about you and what you want! Why on earth would your child's academics suffer if the times were to change? Have you not taught them any resilience?

[Anonymous]

I'm 1000% for later high school start times. And it's almost laughable to say that school starts at 7:45 -- my high schooler's buses come at 7:10am and drops the kids off at 7:20am. Having the buses come at 7:30 would buy an extra 20 min of sleep -- but I'm assuming the buses have to come early so they can go onto the middle school routes.

Can we start a GoFund me for more buses? (Kidding, but not really) More buses are the only way later start times will happen.