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Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)
Petition: Later MCPS school start times
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Anonymous
It was just a few years ago and the reasons they made this decision remain true. It's really too bad they just can't give parenting a chance. |
Anonymous
The success rate of "parenting" vs. millennia of evolution is really low. But keep trying. |
Anonymous
| Persons who are afraid of EXPLORING bell times: what are you so afraid of? Stuck in past? Don't believe in science? |
Anonymous
|
Folks who are opposed to changing (or even discussing a change) school bell times are
A) don't want to change their own schedule in their stubborn old age B) MCPS lawyer C) both A and B above |
Anonymous
I wouldn't have a problem discussing it if anyone had a plausible way to address the issues that prevented its adoption in the past. |
Anonymous
Your memory is faulty. It was 11 years ago that they started studying the issue and Joshua Starr announced that he wasn’t recommending moving forward with it on 6/10/14. Changing the bell times had the overwhelming support of parents back then (78%), so it’s no surprise that they still want it. https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/press/?id=3551 |
Anonymous
They might want the changed bell times, but they don't want the other things that would need to go with it. |
Anonymous
Such as? |
Anonymous
| One small thing that wouldn’t cost the school district money is to change the instructional hours on planned half days. Instead of starting at the normal time and dismissing students 2 1/2 hours early, they could start 2 1/2 hours late and end at the normal time. Same number of buses running, teachers work the same number of hours, activities take place at the usual times, working parents with elementary kids are still inconvenienced by the half day, but for some of them, it will be easier to go to work later than to leave in the middle of the work day. Students get extra sleep on those days. |
Anonymous
But then it affects their sleep patterns on the other days that week. Consistent hours aligning with TEENS' development (not their parents') is key for their academic and social emotional learning. For a district that pushes SEL, why can't they see this correlation? |
Anonymous
The current bell schedule does not align with teens’ development. The kids whose sleep will be thrown off by a change in schedule for one day can get up at their normal time. Just parent your kids appropriately. |
Anonymous
High school teacher/coach here. If you started high school at 9:30am, extracurriculars would take place before school. So practices, activities and clubs would be beginning at 7am. The majority of high school students participate in at least one club. Also the students that are always late and don't get enough sleep for a 7:30am start, would still have the same issues with a 9:30am start. Unless you're starting school at noon, there wouldn't be any difference in performance of the students. |
Anonymous
Are you basing that on actual research or your personal hunch? I don’t think it’s feasible to move extracurricular activities to mornings though, because high school kids who take buses wouldn’t have transportation to school if the buses were being used to transport younger kids. |
Anonymous
Clubs meet at lunch. It is always coming down to sports, sports practices. |
Anonymous
$ |