Survey: School Start Times Should Change

Most people who responded to a survey on a proposal to start class later in the day for Anne Arundel County high school students want a change.

But they can’t agree on what that change should be, according to the survey results.

School officials asked Anne Arundel County residents to comment on proposals to push back the school start times for high school students. And they did, but there’s no consensus on which option works best.

A task force that spent eight months studying the issue of school start times presented the Board of Education with four options to consider, Patch earlier reported. All of the options would result in high school students beginning classes at least 30 minutes later than the current 7:17 a.m. first bell.

The start time options presented to the board are:

• Option A: Starting high school classes at 8:30 a.m., middle school classes at 9:30 a.m., and elementary school classes between 7:50 and 9:15 a.m. This option has an estimated annual increased cost of $8.9 million, largely due to the 124 additional school buses needed.

• Option B: Starting high school classes at 9:15 a.m., middle school classes between 8:20 and 8:30 a.m. (with a single middle school beginning at 9 a.m.), and elementary school classes between 7:40 and 9:15 a.m. This option has an estimated annual increased cost of $9.4 million, largely due to the 131 additional school buses needed.

• Option C: Shifting all schools to start times that are 30 minutes later than their current start times. This option has an estimated annual increased cost of $600,000, due to 10 additional buses needed to transport students to nonpublic special education facilities because of the later time window.

• Option D (Option C with a hybrid learning component): Shifting all schools to start times for all students that are 30 minutes later than their current start times with a late-start “hybrid” learning option for some high school students. These high school students would elect to engage in a blended learning (online mixed with face-to-face courses) program for part of their school day. This option has an estimated annual cost of $9.6 million if implemented county-wide, and $2.1 million if piloted at two high schools. In addition to the estimated annual increased cost for Option C, this option also requires the purchase of technology (software and hardware) and a second bus pickup for all eligible high school bus riders electing the “hybrid” learning option.

Option C was the most popular choice by 1 percent, reports the Capital-Gazette. Seventeen percent of people support starting all schools 30 minutes later, while 16 percent prefer Option B. Fifteen percent prefer Option A.

The task force received 2,136 responses to the online survey; overall a third of respondents want no change to start times.

School employees made up the largest percentage of respondents who do not want to change start times, with 45 percent, reports the newspaper.

All of the information considered by the task force, as well as a full explanation of the options presented to the board, the pros and cons of those options as determined by the task force, and the impacts associated with those options can be found online at www.aacpublicschools.org/aacps2/.