Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012
School hours could change
District would save $10 million
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closeTens of thousands of Wake County families would have to adjust morning routines – from 10 minutes to more than an hour – under an administration proposal to change the start and dismissal times for nearly all of the district’s schools this fall.
The move would save $10 million as Wake is dealing with the loss of $28 million in federal funding for the next budget year. Staff presented the proposal to the Wake County school board Tuesday.
Under the proposal, the majority of Wake’s schools would start and end 10 minutes later. But 42 schools would see their schedules shift by 11 or more minutes this fall. Eighteen schools might change by 50 minutes or more.
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HAVE YOUR SAY Tell school leaders Go to www.wcpss.net/news/2012_feb7_transportation to view the proposed school schedules for this fall and to comment on them. Wake is conducting an online survey of the proposal through Thursday. Tell us How would the schedule changes affect your family? Do you think the plan is a good idea? Tell us what you think at Facebook.com/NorthRaleighNews or send an email to nrnews@newsobserver.com. We’ll share how you and your neighbors feel in Wednesday’s edition.
The proposal is posted online, and parents can provide feedback.
Changing schools’ start and end times, with its effects on children’s and parents’ schedules, is a touchy topic that often leads to parental complaints.
Bob Snidemiller, the school district’s director of transportation, said the changes are needed to avoid a $4 million cut in state funding that would result in bus service being less efficient.
He said it would also avoid the need to spend as much as $6.3 million more in buying and running additional buses to accommodate growth and the system’s new choice-based assignment plan.
“We need to increase efficiency by transporting more students on our buses while cutting our costs,” Snidemiller said.
Snidemiller said the changes would allow Wake to reduce the number of buses now in service by 60 and also avoid having to add 52 more buses to keep up with growth this fall.
Wake transports more than 75,000 students a day.
Under the new schedule, the majority of elementary schools in Wake that now run from 9:15 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. would operate from 9:25 a.m. to 3:55 p.m.
In addition, several elementary schools that now start at 8:30 a.m. or earlier would start at 9:25 a.m.
Some middle schools such as like Daniels and North Garner that now start at 7:30 a.m. would begin at least 45 minutes later.
The new schedule proposes that some high schools that now start at 8:05 a.m. – such as Broughton, East Wake and Sanderson – begin this fall at 7:25 a.m.
It would put those schools in sync with the majority of Wake high schools.
Snidemiller said the changes won’t make a significant impact on ride times.
“The average ride time is 16 minutes,” he said. “We don’t think it’s really going to increase it all that much.”
In addition to the financial benefits, Snidemiller said, the changes would help smooth the transition to the new assignment plan by spreading out the start and dismissal times.
He said the additional time will allow buses to run longer routes to accommodate choices without the need to add more buses.
Snidemiller said he’s confident that the changes will ensure that buses are on campus on time when the bell rings for dismissal. Currently, some buses arrive up to 30 minutes after school ends.
No decision was made Tuesday on the bell schedules. The school board has until April 1 to adopt them for this fall. But some board members urged adopting it sooner because it could affect the decisions that families are make in the school choice selection process.
