P-R supervisors to vote on school start time adjustments

The Pine-Richland school board is slated to vote on a measure approving a change in school start times at its Feb. 11 meeting.

The proposed start times, which would be effective for the 2019-20 school year, are 7:45 a.m. for the high school and middle schools, 8:35 a.m. for Eden Hall Upper Elementary and 9:20 a.m. for the primary schools.

District officials have been discussing the possibility of later start times to better serve the sleep requirements of teenagers for more than a year.

“We’ve made some modifications over that period of time based upon feedback and additional research over those months,” Assistant Superintendent Michael Pasquinelli said. “We’ve been working closely with School Transportation Associates looking to be as efficient as we can for our bus routes so from the beginning we’ve looked at the opportunity to have a positive impact for secondary students and, to the best of our ability, to minimize the impact for lower age students and we feel like we’ve done that through this latest proposal.”

The proposed change reflects a 25-minute later start time for the high school and middle school. Eden Hall students currently start at 8:30 a.m. and primary schools start at 9:15 a.m.

Supervisor Ben Campbell noted at the board’s Jan. 14 meeting that he would like to consider methods the district can put in place to allow low-cost early student drop-offs for younger students.

“A lot of parents brought up the fact that it’s very hard, even at the current start times, to get their kid on the bus and get off to work at a reasonable time,” Campbell said. “I’d like to see something like that looked at regardless of which way the vote goes.”

Karen Price is a
Tribune-Review contributor.