New MCPS Elementary School times

[Anonymous]

Our draft bus school schedule is out and our route is not scheduled to start until 8:40 am. That's nearly half an hour later than last year but bell times are only scheduled at 10 minutes later than last year. What is up with that? In the old system, I could take the kids to the bus stop and still get to work before 9 am, now I don't think the bus will even get to our stop until 8:50 which means getting to work close to 9:30. The wait list for before care at our school is years long, what are other parents planning to do, just suck it up and be late to work everyday? We are a tier 1 school, I can't even imagine what working parents in tier 2 schools have to deal with.

[Anonymous]

That stinks. Ours is scheduled about 15 minutes later than last year, I think. We'll see how it works in practice. I think they had to scramble some of the double bus lines, so your bus is now probably doing a double run (delivering a set of kids before your kids).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our draft bus school schedule is out and our route is not scheduled to start until 8:40 am. That's nearly half an hour later than last year but bell times are only scheduled at 10 minutes later than last year. What is up with that? In the old system, I could take the kids to the bus stop and still get to work before 9 am, now I don't think the bus will even get to our stop until 8:50 which means getting to work close to 9:30. The wait list for before care at our school is years long, what are other parents planning to do, just suck it up and be late to work everyday? We are a tier 1 school, I can't even imagine what working parents in tier 2 schools have to deal with.

Here's a solution. Go private.

We are in private. School starts at 8 with 7:30 am drop-off for free. Dismissal at 3 pm with aftercare available as needed. Annual tuition <$10K a year. Better education and no bureaucracy.

[Anonymous]

I had to get before care for that reason. I don't do the school's before care - I use an outside child care provider who then drives my kids to school. No way can I get to work everyday at 9:30. Plus, that would mean I wouldn't leave until after 6, which impacts activities and spending time with my family. The new bell schedule sucks.

[Anonymous]

Unless you are talking Catholic (which we are not), what private school in the DC area is <$10K a year? All the independent schools near us are 3x that number.

[Anonymous]

Where do we find the new bus schedules?

[Anonymous]

posted on our school's website

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:posted on our school's website

Thanks. I guess ours hasn't been updated -- still see a list from 2013.

[Anonymous]

Our bus schedule is in the welcome packet posted online at the school's website. It should also be coming in the mail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our draft bus school schedule is out and our route is not scheduled to start until 8:40 am. That's nearly half an hour later than last year but bell times are only scheduled at 10 minutes later than last year. What is up with that? In the old system, I could take the kids to the bus stop and still get to work before 9 am, now I don't think the bus will even get to our stop until 8:50 which means getting to work close to 9:30. The wait list for before care at our school is years long, what are other parents planning to do, just suck it up and be late to work everyday? We are a tier 1 school, I can't even imagine what working parents in tier 2 schools have to deal with.

Here's a solution. Go private.
We are in private. School starts at 8 with 7:30 am drop-off for free. Dismissal at 3 pm with aftercare available as needed. Annual tuition <$10K a year. Better education and no bureaucracy.

Well, it's certainly A solution, but it's not necessarily a good solution, or even a workable one, given that it's already August.

[Anonymous]

I'm the parent of a Tier 2 child, and a walker, so my kid will not have to leave til 9:15am, which is why I am shelling out for before care for the first time. It really sucks. Everyone I tell about the start time is shocked.

[Anonymous]

The order of the morning bus stops for your school/neighborhood must have changed for there to be that big a difference in times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The order of the morning bus stops for your school/neighborhood must have changed for there to be that big a difference in times.

Not for us. The pick-up time is a half hour later, but we were the last stop last year and are still the last stop before school.

[Anonymous]

We're at a Tier 2 school, and my kids will start at 925am, meaning about a 9am bus stop. It's awful - the school bus now comes later than the Metro buses in our neighborhood, which makes it impossible for anyone to use public transportation. And it puts many of us on the roads into DC after the rush hour protocols have ended, which will extend commute times considerably. Meanwhile, in the afternoon, the kids will be getting on the bus after rush hour has already begun in our area (near NIH.) So, much longer trips home. Thanks MCPS!

I'm all for pushing back bell times for older kids, BTW. But I doubt they get much benefit from a 20 minute AM reprieve. And there should have been much more careful consideration of the impact of simply randomly pushing back ALL bell times.

[Anonymous]

Same for use 10 minutes equates to 30- 40 minutes later depending on the stop.