More Wake County elementary schools could start after 9 am. And some parents aren’t happy.
Wake County families are balking at a plan that keeps high school students getting up at dawn and elementary students starting school mid-morning. But school officials say they’re limited in their ability to change school times.
Wake school administrators are recommending changing the schedules at five schools this fall, including having three Cary schools start later in the morning to free up enough buses to serve the new Green Level High School. It’s a continuation of an overall approach in which most Wake high schools start at 7:25 a.m., most middle schools start at 8:15 a.m. and most elementary schools start at 9:15 a.m.
School officials say the bell schedules are based around their ability to get students to school within their limited number of school bus drivers. But parents of elementary school students complain that starting after 9 a.m. inconveniences working families and forces them to pay for childcare.
“This time change will cause added stress for working families juggling work, childcare, drop off/pick up, homework, etc,” Patrina Hemingway, a parent at Briarcliff Elementary School in Cary, said on Wake’s online discussion forum. “The school board does not show any consideration for working families.”
Wake uses a three-tier system in which the same bus makes multiple runs in the morning and afternoon. This reduces the number of buses that are needed.
School officials say that high schools are on the first tier because they have longer routes to run than the other schools. Elementary schools, which typically have the shortest routes, are on the third tier.
Wake is opening four new schools later this year. To help serve the new schools, officials want to start Cary Elementary, Briarcliff Elementary and East Cary Middle School 45 minutes later.
The new proposed start and ending times for this fall are:
▪ Apex High School from 7:25 a.m. to 2:18 p.m.
▪ Briarcliff and Cary elementary schools from 9:15 a.m. to 3:45 p.m.
▪ East Cary Middle School from 8:15 a.m. to 3 p.m.
▪ Fuquay-Varina High School from 7:10 a.m. to 2:03 p.m.
“The multi-tier system for all intents and purposes is taking a limited resource and using it multiple times,” David Neter, Wake’s chief operating officer, told school board members last week. “If it’s going to be used to its best extent you have to smooth out the multiple times and have them somewhat evenly loaded.”
School officials say their problems are compounded by not having enough school bus drivers. Wake had 132 fewer bus drivers at the start of the school year than compared to 2014.
“This whole conversation shines a blinding light on inadequate resources to transport 80,000 children safely twice a day,” school board member Bill Fletcher said at last week’s work session. “The inadequate resources to recruit and retain and properly compensate enough drivers to provide services to all our kids is a problem.”
Wake’s bell schedules go against recommendations from groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics to delay start times for middle schools and high schools to 8:30 a.m. because teenagers have a hard time falling asleep before 11 p.m.
Durham Public Schools responded in 2017 and flipped its schedules to start elementary schools earlier at 7:45 a.m. and high schools later at 9 a.m.
Most of the feedback on Wake’s forum, https://bit.ly/2Hfga6R, has been against the proposed school schedules.
“Cary Elementary (and Briarcliff Elementary) both serve large populations of working class families where both parents work,” Matthew Schumaker, a Cary Elementary parent, wrote on the forum. “The later start time would add an additional financial burden to these families, since they must now pay for before school care, in addition to after school care.”
Board members also raised concerns about childcare and asked staff to report back on what it would take to change the times at several schools.
Neter, the chief operating officer, warned that if the board doesn’t accept the 2019-20 school bell schedule recommendations that it will require changes to be made to other schools or cuts in bus service.
School board chairman Jim Martin said that board members realize any decisions that are made will be painful to at least some families.
“I don’t think there is a non-pain point,” Martin said. “I think the board’s vote is going to have to be which pain points do we vote for and which do we not.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2019 at 3:59 PM.
