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The later start times are causing later arrival times. For the middle schoolers it seems like they get home by 5:15 or so if bus is not late and they have H.Work (s) to
complete and by the time bathing and dinner are done, it is sleep time.. Usually they have a project or test which means no bed till 11:00. How is this helpful? |
| What are you talking about? Is this MCPS? Later start times have not gone into effect yet. And the current proposal would be for middle school students to actually start earlier. |
| This is a middle school in prince george's county. Greenbelt middle school to be exact. |
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The start times range from 7:30a to 9:30a with departures ranging from 1:55p to 4:35p, depending on the grade level and the school.
http://www1.pgcps.org/transportation/index.aspx?id=178172 The middle school day is longer than other grade levels, and some middle schools have specialty programs (like TAG at Greenbelt Middle) that mean some kids will have longer than average bus rides. PGCPS has done a good deal of route optimization to get an optimal number of buses on the road at the same time, but given the size of the system, staggered start times seem to be necessary. It can be difficult, but kids may have to use time on the bus or in the morning to get some of the homework and studying done, instead of trying to do it all at home in the evening. |
| My kid goes to Greenbelt. He does get home at around 5:30, but I believe he gets some of his assignments done in the "intervention" mod. He has been getting stuff done in time to go to bed at 9:30. |
| My 4th grader gets home just around 4 and she is doing homework until 9:00 or later, most days. There are a lot of TAG projects. |
Read the forum title, PP. OP, I think later start times for older kids is a good thing. (Actually based on circadian rhythms.) |
To be fair, this was originally in "MD Public Schools" before the OP mentioned Greenbelt Middle School. Then I flagged it (I'm not OP) and suggested that Jeff move it to PG County Schools. The above quote was made before the thread moved. |
| I do not know what research is saying later start times are useful. I mean "Early to bed, Early to rise Makes a Man healthy, wealthy and wise" right! I mean what child can function at 9 or 10 at nite trying to study and complete homework and projects. Once they wake up in the morning and get going, it seems like they are good to go. I know even when my child was in elementary school, by the time they got home at 2 or 2:30, they were worn out. I am sure these kids are worn out by 2 even though the day does not end till 4 p.m. If it's a math class or science class then they are going to have difficulty concentrating and learning anything. |
| Why don't they start the elementary school later. The E.Schoolers usually have h.w lasting an hour or so, so even if they get home late it is fine. They should start m.s and h.s earlier. The m.s and h.schoolers are the ones that have sports, projects, homework. Now that it is getting darker earlier, for the m.s and h.schoolers it is even more of a problem. |
| The research says (and I'll try to find and post it later) that high school kids naturally have a late morning wake up phase and elementary kids naturally have an earlier rise time on avera |
| ^^average. |
| We all know how much research on subjects like these have been debunked later on.. I wonder who is at the top that have something to lose/win in terms of money with changing the times...usually it is not for the students, and not for the parents.... |