middle school start times

[Anonymous]

I work at an FCPS middle school and lots of kids are chronically late ... meanwhile ES kids are up and raring to go. I agree a true study would look at both ES and MS start times. It's wasteful and ridiculous to pay an outside firm to do otherwise.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I wonder what is happening on the progress with middle school start times. My youngest is starting 6th this year and I want the change to be asap!!

Nothing is changing b/c they do not have the funds to hire redundant bus drivers and buy hundreds of new buses. The little amount of changes for TJ/AAP these silly posters are suggesting would be a drop in the bucket.

Your kid will suffer like all the other FCPS MS kids before and after him. You aren't special and neither is he.

Then why did they even bother with having all those meetings?

The plan is they draft bell schedule options in Fall 2024 and makes a school board presentation in January 2025.

We will see.

Praying they can make it work!!!!

Why? Thousands of kids have gone through middle school with these start times. Your kid will be fine.

It's clear we can't afford the buses or the have drivers to make it work. Move on.

What a stupid question!!!!

How so? Did you drink the Kool Aid about later start times? I feel bad for you.

You don’t understand why someone wouldn’t want to have to start school at 7:30 am?

Sorry, you can't operate a $3 billion school system on the whims and desires of one person who can't get out of bed.

No where in my post did I say that. I simply said I hope the start time changes and I hope they can make it work. As to why? I think we all know why.

Please educate us as to why. Thousands of kids have gone through middle school with the current times with no issues.

This.
I bet most folks complaining here will have rising 7th graders. They need to calm themselves down. Don’t mess with what works. Suck it up.

Looks like the maggots are out in full force today. I have several neighbors with kids that were in 7th & 8th last year and they all said their kids were miserable, tired all the time, and never wanted to do schoolwork because they were so tired. And one said it impacted her child's extracurriculars, too, to the point where she dropped travel basketball.

That kid needed an earlier bedtime, better time management, and a heck of a lot more resiliency.

Stfu.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted months ago and makes sense that most likely is the new start times will be rolled out at same time as boundary changes.

don't be stupid.

It’s two big moves and they both depend on transposition so they might do it all together. But I was hoping for 26-27 for boundary changes. Not next school year.

[Anonymous]

Any updates?

I think I saw four options. Is the board going to make a decision on this matter?

[Anonymous]

I thought the main reason times were switched was after school care. Older siblings needed to be home to watch the younger kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any updates?

I think I saw four options. Is the board going to make a decision on this matter?

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/DBCPSG65FD03/$file/Presentation%20MS%20Start%20Times%20Dec%203%202024%20WS.pdf

There are 5 options listed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any updates?

I think I saw four options. Is the board going to make a decision on this matter?

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/DBCPSG65FD03/$file/Presentation%20MS%20Start%20Times%20Dec%203%202024%20WS.pdf

There are 5 options listed.

Thank you!

So what’s the next steps?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any updates?

I think I saw four options. Is the board going to make a decision on this matter?

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/DBCPSG65FD03/$file/Presentation%20MS%20Start%20Times%20Dec%203%202024%20WS.pdf

There are 5 options listed.

Thank you!

So what’s the next steps?

No one knows. It’s also getting late. They promised the changes would take place next year but nothing is happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any updates?

I think I saw four options. Is the board going to make a decision on this matter?

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/DBCPSG65FD03/$file/Presentation%20MS%20Start%20Times%20Dec%203%202024%20WS.pdf

There are 5 options listed.

Thank you!

So what’s the next steps?

No one knows. It’s also getting late. They promised the changes would take place next year but nothing is happening.

It’s hard to keep track but I believe Reid said it would make more sense to do it at the same time as boundary changes because they both require a lot of transportation movements. And changes for families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any updates?

I think I saw four options. Is the board going to make a decision on this matter?

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/DBCPSG65FD03/$file/Presentation%20MS%20Start%20Times%20Dec%203%202024%20WS.pdf

There are 5 options listed.

Thank you!

So what’s the next steps?

No one knows. It’s also getting late. They promised the changes would take place next year but nothing is happening.

There was absolutely no promise of a change next year. Maybe it was a goal, but Reid's comments at other meetings have given zero confidence that it would happen so quickly, if at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought the main reason times were switched was after school care. Older siblings needed to be home to watch the younger kids.

This is a terrible reason to have middle school children get to school at 7am. First of all, it's pretty unfair to the Middle Schooler - not only are they more tired, but they are also supposed to prioritize another person's needs over their own.

Second, it seems this could be remedied by offering more afterschool care options for elementary school children.

Third, when the elementary school students are going to school at 9am and the parents have to be at work by 8, what then? It's the same problem and you could easily justify sending the middle schoolers later because they need to help get the elementary students off to school.
 

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the main reason times were switched was after school care. Older siblings needed to be home to watch the younger kids.

This is a terrible reason to have middle school children get to school at 7am. First of all, it's pretty unfair to the Middle Schooler - not only are they more tired, but they are also supposed to prioritize another person's needs over their own.

Second, it seems this could be remedied by offering more afterschool care options for elementary school children.

Third, when the elementary school students are going to school at 9am and the parents have to be at work by 8, what then? It's the same problem and you could easily justify sending the middle schoolers later because they need to help get the elementary students off to school.
 

There are many many things that are arranged for parents/adult needs rather than children. Kids do better with shorter school hours, people have more output with a less than 40 hour work week. Yet, we still haven’t structured our economy to meet human needs, only the needs of money.

So this may be a “terrible reason” but it is necessary for where we are right now.

[Anonymous]

Wait until parents find out what time the ES students get home when school starts at 7am - and they have to meet the bus for their kindergartener.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait until parents find out what time the ES students get home when school starts at 7am - and they have to meet the bus for their kindergartener.

Exactly. They can’t switch.

It’s just two years waking up early. We’ve grown soft.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any updates?

I think I saw four options. Is the board going to make a decision on this matter?

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/DBCPSG65FD03/$file/Presentation%20MS%20Start%20Times%20Dec%203%202024%20WS.pdf

There are 5 options listed.

Thank you!

So what’s the next steps?

No one knows. It’s also getting late. They promised the changes would take place next year but nothing is happening.

There was absolutely no promise of a change next year. Maybe it was a goal, but Reid's comments at other meetings have given zero confidence that it would happen so quickly, if at all.

I got that no promise was made. Still, they need to keep the parents informed of the status and decisions.