New school start times survey

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Based on the way the survey was designed, I'm convinced they are going to opt to keep things the same. They'll show data that both plans are highly unpopular with some set of the FCPS population and most people opted for the neither option. They tried last year to say none of the options are viable and we're looking into alternatives and a bunch of people kept pestering them on it. They came back this year with 2 of the 5 options given last year and a survey that was about how badly the options would screw up your day and an option to choose neither as the preferred new schedule.

They did have a nearly viable option (C2) that only moved Middle School to the later start time (9:40-4:25) while HS/SS stayed at 8:30 and elementary straddled with some staring at 8:00 and the other half starting at 9:10. I think this would have been a more palatable recommendation over option 1 for elementary and high school families. Only middle school would draw the short stick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on the way the survey was designed, I'm convinced they are going to opt to keep things the same. They'll show data that both plans are highly unpopular with some set of the FCPS population and most people opted for the neither option. They tried last year to say none of the options are viable and we're looking into alternatives and a bunch of people kept pestering them on it. They came back this year with 2 of the 5 options given last year and a survey that was about how badly the options would screw up your day and an option to choose neither as the preferred new schedule.

They did have a nearly viable option (C2) that only moved Middle School to the later start time (9:40-4:25) while HS/SS stayed at 8:30 and elementary straddled with some staring at 8:00 and the other half starting at 9:10. I think this would have been a more palatable recommendation over option 1 for elementary and high school families. Only middle school would draw the short stick.

Do you mean high school stated at 8AM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Option 1 has the high schools starting too late. 9 am is not ok, especially when they initially said high school times wouldn’t be affected.

The earliest acceptable start time for both MS and HS is 830a. 9a is not terribly late. Could it be a smidge earlier? Sure, but not by much. And they have to find a way to make this all work with the available transportation capacity. Given that, 9a seems pretty darn reasonable.

9:00 is fine.

Nope.

Keep high school on the current schedule

Any later is too late and any earlier is too early.

+1 I would only accept 30 min later max for high school. That’s why option 2 is the only one that works.

Well 30 min later is the minimum for high school to be on the recommended schedule of no students 7th+ grade starting before 830am. I'm ok with 830am or even 9am, but 8am is objectively too early for the majority of high school students in order to maximize their academic achievement at school according to research. And that's what this is about, what's best for students academically... not what's best for their extracurriculars (which can adapt to the school schedule), not what's most convenient for parents (as if there were ever any hope of consensus on that topic), but what's best for the students themselves, from a primarily academic perspective.

Right now high school is 8:10 am (not 8 am) and most people think that’s fine. In fact, they were only considering changing start times for middle school, without affecting the high school times. That was explicitly stated by FCPS. Who said we can’t start before 8:30 am? Prism? They were hired to come up with ideas that for what FCPS wants. FCPS doesn’t want to mess with the HS schedule. But they agree 7:30 am sucks. Option 2 allows it to happen so that MS gets 8 am and HS gets 8:40 am. That’s a win for us.

No, that is a huge loss for high school.

Remember, it is not even all middle schools that start at 7:30.

All of the middle schools located at secondary schools start on the later high school schedule.

It is only the stand alone middle schools that start early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on the way the survey was designed, I'm convinced they are going to opt to keep things the same. They'll show data that both plans are highly unpopular with some set of the FCPS population and most people opted for the neither option. They tried last year to say none of the options are viable and we're looking into alternatives and a bunch of people kept pestering them on it. They came back this year with 2 of the 5 options given last year and a survey that was about how badly the options would screw up your day and an option to choose neither as the preferred new schedule.

They did have a nearly viable option (C2) that only moved Middle School to the later start time (9:40-4:25) while HS/SS stayed at 8:30 and elementary straddled with some staring at 8:00 and the other half starting at 9:10. I think this would have been a more palatable recommendation over option 1 for elementary and high school families. Only middle school would draw the short stick.

Do you mean high school stated at 8AM?

Sorry, HS/SS shifted to 8:30 in C2.

[Anonymous]

The 2 options they are making us choose from were the ones that require zero or much less money for the buses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on the way the survey was designed, I'm convinced they are going to opt to keep things the same. They'll show data that both plans are highly unpopular with some set of the FCPS population and most people opted for the neither option. They tried last year to say none of the options are viable and we're looking into alternatives and a bunch of people kept pestering them on it. They came back this year with 2 of the 5 options given last year and a survey that was about how badly the options would screw up your day and an option to choose neither as the preferred new schedule.

They did have a nearly viable option (C2) that only moved Middle School to the later start time (9:40-4:25) while HS/SS stayed at 8:30 and elementary straddled with some staring at 8:00 and the other half starting at 9:10. I think this would have been a more palatable recommendation over option 1 for elementary and high school families. Only middle school would draw the short stick.

Do you mean high school stated at 8AM?

Sorry, HS/SS shifted to 8:30 in C2.

No it did not. It said 8:40 am, which is 30 min later than the current start time of 8:10 am.

[Anonymous]

I think they are going with option 2, as it only shifts everyone by 30 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Option 1 has the high schools starting too late. 9 am is not ok, especially when they initially said high school times wouldn’t be affected.

The earliest acceptable start time for both MS and HS is 830a. 9a is not terribly late. Could it be a smidge earlier? Sure, but not by much. And they have to find a way to make this all work with the available transportation capacity. Given that, 9a seems pretty darn reasonable.

9:00 is fine.

Nope.

Keep high school on the current schedule

Any later is too late and any earlier is too early.

+1 I would only accept 30 min later max for high school. That’s why option 2 is the only one that works.

Well 30 min later is the minimum for high school to be on the recommended schedule of no students 7th+ grade starting before 830am. I'm ok with 830am or even 9am, but 8am is objectively too early for the majority of high school students in order to maximize their academic achievement at school according to research. And that's what this is about, what's best for students academically... not what's best for their extracurriculars (which can adapt to the school schedule), not what's most convenient for parents (as if there were ever any hope of consensus on that topic), but what's best for the students themselves, from a primarily academic perspective.

Right now high school is 8:10 am (not 8 am) and most people think that’s fine. In fact, they were only considering changing start times for middle school, without affecting the high school times. That was explicitly stated by FCPS. Who said we can’t start before 8:30 am? Prism? They were hired to come up with ideas that for what FCPS wants. FCPS doesn’t want to mess with the HS schedule. But they agree 7:30 am sucks. Option 2 allows it to happen so that MS gets 8 am and HS gets 8:40 am. That’s a win for us.

No, that is a huge loss for high school.

Remember, it is not even all middle schools that start at 7:30.

All of the middle schools located at secondary schools start on the later high school schedule.

It is only the stand alone middle schools that start early.

There are 23 standalone middle schools and only 6 secondary schools.

Anyway, I have an 8th and 10th grader so I vote leave as is. All I care about right now is HS and we like 8:10 start time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on the way the survey was designed, I'm convinced they are going to opt to keep things the same. They'll show data that both plans are highly unpopular with some set of the FCPS population and most people opted for the neither option. They tried last year to say none of the options are viable and we're looking into alternatives and a bunch of people kept pestering them on it. They came back this year with 2 of the 5 options given last year and a survey that was about how badly the options would screw up your day and an option to choose neither as the preferred new schedule.

They did have a nearly viable option (C2) that only moved Middle School to the later start time (9:40-4:25) while HS/SS stayed at 8:30 and elementary straddled with some staring at 8:00 and the other half starting at 9:10. I think this would have been a more palatable recommendation over option 1 for elementary and high school families. Only middle school would draw the short stick.

Do you mean high school stated at 8AM?

Sorry, HS/SS shifted to 8:30 in C2.

No it did not. It said 8:40 am, which is 30 min later than the current start time of 8:10 am.

That’s “Option 2” I’m referring to Option C2 which was presented earlier this year:

https://www.fcps.edu/considering-change-k-12-school-start-times

This is yet another thing they should pump the breaks on as they evaluate expanding AAP and how that impacts school run time. Some of the more expensive options might be achievable if they can shorten the run times without having to add busses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Option 1 has the high schools starting too late. 9 am is not ok, especially when they initially said high school times wouldn’t be affected.

The earliest acceptable start time for both MS and HS is 830a. 9a is not terribly late. Could it be a smidge earlier? Sure, but not by much. And they have to find a way to make this all work with the available transportation capacity. Given that, 9a seems pretty darn reasonable.

9:00 is fine.

Nope.

Keep high school on the current schedule

Any later is too late and any earlier is too early.

+1 I would only accept 30 min later max for high school. That’s why option 2 is the only one that works.

Well 30 min later is the minimum for high school to be on the recommended schedule of no students 7th+ grade starting before 830am. I'm ok with 830am or even 9am, but 8am is objectively too early for the majority of high school students in order to maximize their academic achievement at school according to research. And that's what this is about, what's best for students academically... not what's best for their extracurriculars (which can adapt to the school schedule), not what's most convenient for parents (as if there were ever any hope of consensus on that topic), but what's best for the students themselves, from a primarily academic perspective.

Right now high school is 8:10 am (not 8 am) and most people think that’s fine. In fact, they were only considering changing start times for middle school, without affecting the high school times. That was explicitly stated by FCPS. Who said we can’t start before 8:30 am? Prism? They were hired to come up with ideas that for what FCPS wants. FCPS doesn’t want to mess with the HS schedule. But they agree 7:30 am sucks. Option 2 allows it to happen so that MS gets 8 am and HS gets 8:40 am. That’s a win for us.

No, that is a huge loss for high school.

Remember, it is not even all middle schools that start at 7:30.

All of the middle schools located at secondary schools start on the later high school schedule.

It is only the stand alone middle schools that start early.

There are 23 standalone middle schools and only 6 secondary schools.

Anyway, I have an 8th and 10th grader so I vote leave as is. All I care about right now is HS and we like 8:10 start time.

There are 3 secondary schools and at least one of them starts at 8:00

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think they are going with option 2, as it only shifts everyone by 30 minutes.

That 30 minutes takes late start elementary schools (9:20 am right now) from late but reasonably doable to a completely unreasonable 9:50-4:35. There's no way that lower elementary kids are going to be functionally learning until 4:35 pm, especially if a lot of them are up early to be dropped at before care so their parents can make it to work.

The only reasonable option is leaving things as is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think they are going with option 2, as it only shifts everyone by 30 minutes.

That 30 minutes takes late start elementary schools (9:20 am right now) from late but reasonably doable to a completely unreasonable 9:50-4:35. There's no way that lower elementary kids are going to be functionally learning until 4:35 pm, especially if a lot of them are up early to be dropped at before care so their parents can make it to work.

The only reasonable option is leaving things as is.

Parents- nothing is probably going to happen. Things will stay the same most likely. - admin in FCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think they are going with option 2, as it only shifts everyone by 30 minutes.

That 30 minutes takes late start elementary schools (9:20 am right now) from late but reasonably doable to a completely unreasonable 9:50-4:35. There's no way that lower elementary kids are going to be functionally learning until 4:35 pm, especially if a lot of them are up early to be dropped at before care so their parents can make it to work.

The only reasonable option is leaving things as is.

This was brought up at our community conversation and they agreed a 9:50 start time is not good for ES, so don’t think it will be happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Option 1 has the high schools starting too late. 9 am is not ok, especially when they initially said high school times wouldn’t be affected.

The earliest acceptable start time for both MS and HS is 830a. 9a is not terribly late. Could it be a smidge earlier? Sure, but not by much. And they have to find a way to make this all work with the available transportation capacity. Given that, 9a seems pretty darn reasonable.

9:00 is fine.

Nope.

Keep high school on the current schedule

Any later is too late and any earlier is too early.

+1 I would only accept 30 min later max for high school. That’s why option 2 is the only one that works.

Well 30 min later is the minimum for high school to be on the recommended schedule of no students 7th+ grade starting before 830am. I'm ok with 830am or even 9am, but 8am is objectively too early for the majority of high school students in order to maximize their academic achievement at school according to research. And that's what this is about, what's best for students academically... not what's best for their extracurriculars (which can adapt to the school schedule), not what's most convenient for parents (as if there were ever any hope of consensus on that topic), but what's best for the students themselves, from a primarily academic perspective.

Right now high school is 8:10 am (not 8 am) and most people think that’s fine. In fact, they were only considering changing start times for middle school, without affecting the high school times. That was explicitly stated by FCPS. Who said we can’t start before 8:30 am? Prism? They were hired to come up with ideas that for what FCPS wants. FCPS doesn’t want to mess with the HS schedule. But they agree 7:30 am sucks. Option 2 allows it to happen so that MS gets 8 am and HS gets 8:40 am. That’s a win for us.

No, that is a huge loss for high school.

Remember, it is not even all middle schools that start at 7:30.

All of the middle schools located at secondary schools start on the later high school schedule.

It is only the stand alone middle schools that start early.

There are 23 standalone middle schools and only 6 secondary schools.

Anyway, I have an 8th and 10th grader so I vote leave as is. All I care about right now is HS and we like 8:10 start time.

So it is just around 12% of FCPS students with the early middle school start time?

Why would FCPS disrupt 88% of their students (including 6 entire middle schools) with a new terrible schedule, just so 12% of students (and not all middle school students) can have an ideal schedule?

Please make this make sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Option 1 has the high schools starting too late. 9 am is not ok, especially when they initially said high school times wouldn’t be affected.

The earliest acceptable start time for both MS and HS is 830a. 9a is not terribly late. Could it be a smidge earlier? Sure, but not by much. And they have to find a way to make this all work with the available transportation capacity. Given that, 9a seems pretty darn reasonable.

9:00 is fine.

Nope.

Keep high school on the current schedule

Any later is too late and any earlier is too early.

+1 I would only accept 30 min later max for high school. That’s why option 2 is the only one that works.

Well 30 min later is the minimum for high school to be on the recommended schedule of no students 7th+ grade starting before 830am. I'm ok with 830am or even 9am, but 8am is objectively too early for the majority of high school students in order to maximize their academic achievement at school according to research. And that's what this is about, what's best for students academically... not what's best for their extracurriculars (which can adapt to the school schedule), not what's most convenient for parents (as if there were ever any hope of consensus on that topic), but what's best for the students themselves, from a primarily academic perspective.

Right now high school is 8:10 am (not 8 am) and most people think that’s fine. In fact, they were only considering changing start times for middle school, without affecting the high school times. That was explicitly stated by FCPS. Who said we can’t start before 8:30 am? Prism? They were hired to come up with ideas that for what FCPS wants. FCPS doesn’t want to mess with the HS schedule. But they agree 7:30 am sucks. Option 2 allows it to happen so that MS gets 8 am and HS gets 8:40 am. That’s a win for us.

No, that is a huge loss for high school.

Remember, it is not even all middle schools that start at 7:30.

All of the middle schools located at secondary schools start on the later high school schedule.

It is only the stand alone middle schools that start early.

There are 23 standalone middle schools and only 6 secondary schools.

Anyway, I have an 8th and 10th grader so I vote leave as is. All I care about right now is HS and we like 8:10 start time.

There are 3 secondary schools and at least one of them starts at 8:00

Robinson
Hayfield
South County
Lake Braddock