Schools
Board of Education Candidates Forum Oct. 5
Start School Later hosts forum on student health and safety concerns
With an important election just weeks away, and ten individuals running for five seat on the MCPS Board of Education, participants in the forum will have a chance to ask the candidates questions and hear their views. The event will cover issues related to student health, safety, and equity, including sports injuries, achievement gaps, school nutrition, and bell times.
The candidates forum will take place on Sunday, October 5, from 4:30 to 6:00 pm at Garrett Park Town Hall at 10814 Kenilworth Avenue.
This event is being organized by the Montgomery County Chapter of Start School Later. The group contends that public school start times should be pushed back to help overcome an epidemic of teen sleep deprivation. This position has been bolstered by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which recently recommended that all public middle and high schools in the U.S. begin after 8:30, to better align with the natural sleeping patterns of teenagers.
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But the road to change into Montgomery County has been full of twists and turns. On December 11, 2012, Start School Later presented a petition to the Board of Education with more than 10,000 signatures. That same day, MCPS Superintendent Joshua Starr promised to start a task force to study the issue. A year later, following the task force report, he proposed to delay high school start times by 50 minutes.
However, on June 10, 2014, Starr announced that he no longer supported his own proposal, saying it was too costly. At the Board of Education meeting one week later, members unanimously passed a resolution requiring the superintendent to report back to the board with an affordable option for later bell times.
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Whoever wins the board election in November will decide on this and many other important issues affecting our community’s children. Parents are concerned about the nutritional quality of school meals and snacks, the cumulative impact of head injuries in sports, the lingering achievement gap in the county, and many other important issues. The forum will provide a rare opportunity to hear directly from the candidates about how they propose to address these concerns.
