ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - The St. Paul school district has proposed moving most middle and high schools to an 8:30 a.m. start time, after shelving a time change last year.
The current plan has a $2.4 million price tag, which would add to an existing district deficit. The cost comes from adding buses so that elementary students aren’t being transported before 7 a.m., according to the Minnesota Public Radio (https://bit.ly/2fsJPw1).
Opponents of the change said additional costs for families who need child care in the morning, as well as the afternoon, could become a burden. The costs would be an ever bigger burden on the 70 percent of low-income students. Elementary schools would start at either 7:45 a.m. or 9:30 a.m.
Parent of a second- and fourth-grader Deepa Nirmal said she would have to pay for care “at both ends” if the school times change.
“There’s just no way we could do an 8:45 bus drop-off, so we’d have to pay for someone to care for them before school … if school ended at 4, if they did ride the bus they’d get home about 4:35 or 4:40, which is too early for me to make it back home, or for my husband to make it back home,” Nirmal said.
Supporters of moving high school and middle school start times cite research that shows teenagers are biologically programmed to fall asleep and wake later than younger children.
“I have a hard time waking up, and so my brain usually doesn’t start working until about 8, 8:30,” Highland Park senior Davina Newman said.
On the other side, a 1998 report on schools in Minneapolis showed there were negative effects on elementary school student learning when their start times were as late as 9:40 a.m.
The St. Paul school board is expected to vote on the plan Nov. 15. If the changes are approved, new start times could begin in the 2018-2019 school year.
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Information from: Minnesota Public Radio News, https://www.mprnews.org
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