PGCPS Changes School Start, End Times For Most Buildings To Help With Busing Issues

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD — On Thursday, Prince George’s County Public Schools introduced new school start and end times for the 2024-2025 academic year.

Currently, the district has 13 morning school start times and 17 dismissal times. Starting next school year, new standard bell times will reduce that to three start times and six dismissal times. This plan will not shift all elementary schools to 7:30 a.m., nor all middle schools/ and pre-kindergarten through 8th grade academies to 8:30 a.m., nor all high schools to 9:30 a.m., school officials noted.

"Transportation has long been a pressing issue for our community, and we are taking steps toward a long-term solution," said Prince George's County Public Schools Superintendent Millard House II. "Our goal is to ensure that every child arrives at school on time and ready to learn — and we believe these strategies will lead to an improvement in the quality of our school bus service moving forward.”

"By ensuring that 84% of bell times remain unchanged or shift by no more than 15 minutes, we are taking a modest approach that will yield significant benefits in balancing trip distribution, minimizing delays and optimizing our buses and drivers," said PGCPS Chief Operating Officer Charoscar Coleman.

To view a list of all bell times, visit https://www.pgcps.org/offices/...