School Start Times

On Tuesday, April 12, 2011, the school board will vote on the 2011-2012 Fifth Avenue Elementary School Transportation Plan. The new plan will affect the high school schedule by changing our school day to the following: 7:45 – 2:45.

The schedule changes will allow our faculty to move early morning activities to more student, teacher, and family-friendly times in the afternoon and help our large population of athletes get home earlier after practice. Currently, many of our AP and band students arrive at school between 7 and 7:15 for rehearsals and mandatory sessions that leave them exhausted long before the dismissal bell sounds. We plan to have a time after school for tutorial, meaning no practices will start before that time. We expect attendance to rise since students are already in the building and are not rushing off to an athletic practice. This immutable time for academic support is vital as we continue to increase expectations and rigor for all of our students. When we moved to ending the day at 3:30, it pushed back practice times to 4pm, and it became more difficult to share our space. I heard from many parents that their students were getting home very late, often 7:30 or 8pm. Also, we had trouble getting athletes to afternoon events (especially outside the perimeter) considering most of our competitors got out at 3pm or earlier. At times, athletes need to leave for their events before school ends, causing them to miss valuable instructional time. We believe that moving up practices and game departures by just 15 minutes will reduce stress on coaches, athletes and their families.

Although it is a fairly significant shift earlier (50 minutes), all the other schools in the district had to be considered and staggered due to shared buses. There were a variety of options and topics discussed. Dr. Edwards listened intently as principals discussed feedback from teachers and parents about research around teenagers and optimal school performance. It was very clear in this research that the peak start time is around 10:00 a.m. However, this is not an option at this time. Therefore, when given the choice to be the first school to start or the last, the above reasons weighed heavily in my preference for an earlier start time. I believe the students will successfully adjust. Some of our neighboring high schools start earlier—or within 15 minutes of that time. I am confident Decatur’s students will be able to do so as well.