New school start times survey

[Anonymous]

Why is it hard to shift elementary start times to 7:45-8:10? That's a normal start time for many schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Start time update at tonight’s board meeting which I guess is the “not now” report?

Bold to assume they won't announce a majorly disruptive, unpopular, surprise change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is it hard to shift elementary start times to 7:45-8:10? That's a normal start time for many schools.

Again, there are a limited number of buses. All level schools cannot start at the same time without the purchase of more buses and more bus drivers.

If the buses are doing runs for the elementary schools with a 7:45am-8:10am start then they can’t be simultaneously doing bus runs for the HSs that start at that time without more buses being purchased and more bus drivers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Start time update at tonight’s board meeting which I guess is the “not now” report?

Bold to assume they won't announce a majorly disruptive, unpopular, surprise change.

One of the at large members already came out against any change. It's over.

[Anonymous]

Fully expect they will put out a survey to ask everyone how much they liked filling out all the surveys on this to have it go nowhere.

[Anonymous]

From today's agenda:

I move that the School Board direct the Superintendent to postpone any divisionwide implementation of changes to school start times until no earlier than the 2027–28 school year to allow for the full implementation of the new transportation routing software and consideration of potential updates to school boundaries.
I further move that the School Board direct the Superintendent to present to the Board, no later than December 2026, a plan outlining viable options for healthy school start times that, where possible, are budget-neutral and minimize impacts on staff

[Anonymous]

It passed - is paused.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like this will happen eventually, multiple of the more rational members stated their support for healthy start times aligned with the recommendations of the American Pediatric Association and various other expert groups.

Unfortunately, the change is delayed, supposedly in the hopes that the boundary changes and/or new software will allow the range from earliest-to-latest start times to be narrowed. Given the fact that in the latest proposal only 3% of students are being reassigned, and that our transportation staff has the expertise of working out the viable routes year after year after year, color me skeptical that next year's options will be significantly different than this years unless they somehow come up with more money to fund transportation (also doubtful). Sometimes you just need to accept reality and move forward within the known limitations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is it hard to shift elementary start times to 7:45-8:10? That's a normal start time for many schools.

It's too early for a lot of us. And it would result in the middle schoolers being in school until 4:30 which is too late for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like this will happen eventually, multiple of the more rational members stated their support for healthy start times aligned with the recommendations of the American Pediatric Association and various other expert groups.

Unfortunately, the change is delayed, supposedly in the hopes that the boundary changes and/or new software will allow the range from earliest-to-latest start times to be narrowed. Given the fact that in the latest proposal only 3% of students are being reassigned, and that our transportation staff has the expertise of working out the viable routes year after year after year, color me skeptical that next year's options will be significantly different than this years unless they somehow come up with more money to fund transportation (also doubtful). Sometimes you just need to accept reality and move forward within the known limitations.

I listened to that part of the board meeting and came away with a different conclusion. It sounded like many just wanted to grandstand about how they support changing the times, but there are too many complicating/conflicting factors like cost, daylight, and community opinion to ever actually be able to change anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like this will happen eventually, multiple of the more rational members stated their support for healthy start times aligned with the recommendations of the American Pediatric Association and various other expert groups.

Unfortunately, the change is delayed, supposedly in the hopes that the boundary changes and/or new software will allow the range from earliest-to-latest start times to be narrowed. Given the fact that in the latest proposal only 3% of students are being reassigned, and that our transportation staff has the expertise of working out the viable routes year after year after year, color me skeptical that next year's options will be significantly different than this years unless they somehow come up with more money to fund transportation (also doubtful). Sometimes you just need to accept reality and move forward within the known limitations.

I listened to that part of the board meeting and came away with a different conclusion. It sounded like many just wanted to grandstand about how they support changing the times, but there are too many complicating/conflicting factors like cost, daylight, and community opinion to ever actually be able to change anything.

I didn’t watch the school board meeting, but through exchanges with my rep, they’ve realized the cost neutral approaches are not achievable.

This should be punted until after they’ve figured out AAP in middle school. They could use the next comprehensive review to evaluate bus run times and model whether any could be improved through boundary adjustments (ie maximizing walk zones, routes that exceed a certain time threshold, and buses that aren’t full.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is it hard to shift elementary start times to 7:45-8:10? That's a normal start time for many schools.

One of the things they said in the meeting was that they did test runs of all the bus routes and they took much longer than the consultants said they would - which means there would be even more bus delays that there already are. There are parts of the county (west) where traffic is worse at 7:30am than it is at 8:30am.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like this will happen eventually, multiple of the more rational members stated their support for healthy start times aligned with the recommendations of the American Pediatric Association and various other expert groups.

Unfortunately, the change is delayed, supposedly in the hopes that the boundary changes and/or new software will allow the range from earliest-to-latest start times to be narrowed. Given the fact that in the latest proposal only 3% of students are being reassigned, and that our transportation staff has the expertise of working out the viable routes year after year after year, color me skeptical that next year's options will be significantly different than this years unless they somehow come up with more money to fund transportation (also doubtful). Sometimes you just need to accept reality and move forward within the known limitations.

I listened to that part of the board meeting and came away with a different conclusion. It sounded like many just wanted to grandstand about how they support changing the times, but there are too many complicating/conflicting factors like cost, daylight, and community opinion to ever actually be able to change anything.

I didn’t watch the school board meeting, but through exchanges with my rep, they’ve realized the cost neutral approaches are not achievable.

This should be punted until after they’ve figured out AAP in middle school. They could use the next comprehensive review to evaluate bus run times and model whether any could be improved through boundary adjustments (ie maximizing walk zones, routes that exceed a certain time threshold, and buses that aren’t full.)

100% also there is a whole new school that they need to factor into bus routes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like this will happen eventually, multiple of the more rational members stated their support for healthy start times aligned with the recommendations of the American Pediatric Association and various other expert groups.

Unfortunately, the change is delayed, supposedly in the hopes that the boundary changes and/or new software will allow the range from earliest-to-latest start times to be narrowed. Given the fact that in the latest proposal only 3% of students are being reassigned, and that our transportation staff has the expertise of working out the viable routes year after year after year, color me skeptical that next year's options will be significantly different than this years unless they somehow come up with more money to fund transportation (also doubtful). Sometimes you just need to accept reality and move forward within the known limitations.

I listened to that part of the board meeting and came away with a different conclusion. It sounded like many just wanted to grandstand about how they support changing the times, but there are too many complicating/conflicting factors like cost, daylight, and community opinion to ever actually be able to change anything.

I didn’t watch the school board meeting, but through exchanges with my rep, they’ve realized the cost neutral approaches are not achievable.

This should be punted until after they’ve figured out AAP in middle school. They could use the next comprehensive review to evaluate bus run times and model whether any could be improved through boundary adjustments (ie maximizing walk zones, routes that exceed a certain time threshold, and buses that aren’t full.)

100% also there is a whole new school that they need to factor into bus routes.

Yes, but fortunately, after two years, the bus routes should be dramatically reduced. Much shorter bus rides should allow more runs elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is it hard to shift elementary start times to 7:45-8:10? That's a normal start time for many schools.

One of the things they said in the meeting was that they did test runs of all the bus routes and they took much longer than the consultants said they would - which means there would be even more bus delays that there already are. There are parts of the county (west) where traffic is worse at 7:30am than it is at 8:30am.

Wonder if they considered that if they put AAP in all schools that there would be a need for fewer buses. After all, some of those kids are likely walkers to their base school.