Petition: Later MCPS school start times

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Enough! They have wasted so much time and energy on this already. They have explained that they need the busses to run multiple routes, so they can't push HS later without it impacting MS and ES. They have explained that for MANY MoCo families, they need HS kids home after school to watch younger siblings (so they cannot switch HS and ES start times). They also can't have young ES students walking to school/waiting for the bus in the dark during winter. They also have an issue for student athletes, who need time after school for their activities .

So please just stop. Unless or until you donate enough money for more busses, and an endowment to buy more busses every time the additional ones need to be replaced.

I think it actually would help if MCPS had high school kids take the public buses, where there are public buses to take. It would also help if MCPS didn't have so many bus routes that involve busing kids across the street because the street is too dangerous to cross. Change those things, and then it might be possible to have reasonable school start times for everyone, without spending even more money on school buses and school bus drivers.

[Anonymous]

They didn't have reasonable start times even when they didn't bus kids across the street in the 2000s.

[Anonymous]

And an adult should be waiting with your ES student at a bus stop in the dark or light.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They didn't have reasonable start times even when they didn't bus kids across the street in the 2000s.

That's because they did bus kids across the street in the 2000s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And an adult should be waiting with your ES student at a bus stop in the dark or light.

That depends on the age of the child, the maturity of the child, and the specifics of the bus stop.

[Anonymous]

HS who have public buses do take them, metro too if one is around their HS. There are 2000-3500students/HS and 25 HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And an adult should be waiting with your ES student at a bus stop in the dark or light.

That depends on the age of the child, the maturity of the child, and the specifics of the bus stop.

If they are mature, they'll be ok on a winter morning

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HS who have public buses do take them, metro too if one is around their HS. There are 2000-3500students/HS and 25 HS.

Yes, HS kids do, and Montgomery County also has the Kids Ride Free program. But the HS kids ALSO get school bus service, even where there are public buses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They didn't have reasonable start times even when they didn't bus kids across the street in the 2000s.

That's because they did bus kids across the street in the 2000s.

No they did not everywhere, our kids did cross the dangerous street

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HS who have public buses do take them, metro too if one is around their HS. There are 2000-3500students/HS and 25 HS.

Yes, HS kids do, and Montgomery County also has the Kids Ride Free program. But the HS kids ALSO get school bus service, even where there are public buses.

Some HSers are arriving at their neighborhood school 40 min before it starts, after sitting on a bus for 25 min

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Later? My kid's school doesn't start until nearly 9:30!

If we're going to push back high school, we need more buses to at least avoid needing to do two runs for elementary schools.

I don't really think they mean later for the elementary kids starting at 9:30. My kids had that start time. Adjusting to needing to be on the bus at 6:55 a.m. (neighborhood high school!) is rough and will come sooner than you think.

There really isn't a workable solution that wouldn't involve pushing elementary back, too. After-school activities effectively preclude flipping ES and HS times. If we got more buses we could theoretically combine the ES times--- maybe even combine HS and MS times-- but that would require a lot more buses.

I grew up somewhere where HS/MS/ES all got on the same buses, with a transfer point at the high/middle school for kids going to one of the elementary schools. But that doesn't work here for a variety of reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So many decisions are made based on free transportation. Snow days, flooded roads, start times, end times. It’s ridiculous. We need to do away with school buses, boost the public buses and make decisions based on what’s best for our kids.

You want elementary school kids to get on RideOn buses alone?

Even if you limited it to HS, RideOn routes could never scale up to meet the demand before and after school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Later? My kid's school doesn't start until nearly 9:30!

If we're going to push back high school, we need more buses to at least avoid needing to do two runs for elementary schools.

They should switch ES and secondary school so ES is early

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Later? My kid's school doesn't start until nearly 9:30!

If we're going to push back high school, we need more buses to at least avoid needing to do two runs for elementary schools.

They should switch ES and secondary school so ES is early

How would after-school activities work for high school kids then?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know what? It’s good practice for high schoolers to be prepared for 8am classes in college or the workforce.

Exactly what I was thinking! I remember that 8am Chemistry class freshmen year.