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

[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.

Kudos to AACPS!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really don't see the fuss over the difference between a 7:45 am and 8:00 am start time and I'm hard pressed to think 8:30 am is going to make that much of a difference either.

Teens like to sleep in if they can whenever they can. Push it to 9:00 am and you'd still have some people complaining it's still too early. Pretty much anything before 11 am is "too early" for most teenagers.

It does make a difference.

My senior in MCPS doesn't have 1st period this semester, and DC is thrilled to get extra time to sleep in. And no, they don't go to sleep *that* late. Straight A student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really don't see the fuss over the difference between a 7:45 am and 8:00 am start time and I'm hard pressed to think 8:30 am is going to make that much of a difference either.

Teens like to sleep in if they can whenever they can. Push it to 9:00 am and you'd still have some people complaining it's still too early. Pretty much anything before 11 am is "too early" for most teenagers.

It does make a difference.

My senior in MCPS doesn't have 1st period this semester, and DC is thrilled to get extra time to sleep in. And no, they don't go to sleep *that* late. Straight A student.

Mine didn't get the first period off, but I set their clock ahead an hour, so they think it's later. It's also worked miracles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Sadly, there's no perfect answer, and they already went through this a couple of years ago.

[Anonymous]

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

Do you know that entire hoopla wasted over 12ml of the budget. Pls don’t do it again. Bigger problems

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

How about we just redistrict to let all kids go to schools they can walk to and get rid of all the magnets and busing them all over county. The amount of buses wasted in this is ridiculous. Walkers bussing to further schools and magnet buses carting kids all over the county. The irony of asking for later start times when the magnet kids (supposedly working the hardest) are getting up the earliest.

Just get rid of all the extra administration and buses that goes into these programs. Keep the kids local and guess what? Their buses wouldn’t come 50min before school.

[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!

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.

Yes, and in AACPS kids still do sports directly after school. Why do you think sports would be cancelled if school started an hour later?

[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!

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.

Yes, and in AACPS kids still do sports directly after school. Why do you think sports would be cancelled if school started an hour later?

Their teams suck though! Probably because practices are shorter. DOn't shortchange kids sports, it's important because PE is a joke!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really don't see the fuss over the difference between a 7:45 am and 8:00 am start time and I'm hard pressed to think 8:30 am is going to make that much of a difference either.

Teens like to sleep in if they can whenever they can. Push it to 9:00 am and you'd still have some people complaining it's still too early. Pretty much anything before 11 am is "too early" for most teenagers.

It does make a difference.

My senior in MCPS doesn't have 1st period this semester, and DC is thrilled to get extra time to sleep in. And no, they don't go to sleep *that* late. Straight A student.

Mine didn't get the first period off, but I set their clock ahead an hour, so they think it's later. It's also worked miracles.

? and they don't realize that their clock is ahead by an hour?

[Anonymous]

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?

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!

Two more MCPS graduates who slept during science class.

[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?

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!

Two more MCPS graduates who slept during science class.

lol. yea, I don't get how that's the solution. Are their kids so dumb they can't tell the clocks are pushed ahead?

[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.

Why would people think teenagers need more sleep than ES kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

How about we just redistrict to let all kids go to schools they can walk to and get rid of all the magnets and busing them all over county. The amount of buses wasted in this is ridiculous. Walkers bussing to further schools and magnet buses carting kids all over the county. The irony of asking for later start times when the magnet kids (supposedly working the hardest) are getting up the earliest.

Just get rid of all the extra administration and buses that goes into these programs. Keep the kids local and guess what? Their buses wouldn’t come 50min before school.

I'd keep the magnets because they're amazing but limit selection to the home schools. It would be a win win.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Why would people think teenagers need more sleep than ES kids?

They don't but the posters have HS kids, and don't care about anyone but themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

How about we just redistrict to let all kids go to schools they can walk to and get rid of all the magnets and busing them all over county. The amount of buses wasted in this is ridiculous. Walkers bussing to further schools and magnet buses carting kids all over the county. The irony of asking for later start times when the magnet kids (supposedly working the hardest) are getting up the earliest.

Just get rid of all the extra administration and buses that goes into these programs. Keep the kids local and guess what? Their buses wouldn’t come 50min before school.

I'd keep the magnets because they're amazing but limit selection to the home schools. It would be a win win.

Then they wouldn't be magnets.