When the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board passed its schedule of 2020 work sessions at the Jan. 15 meeting, there were no work sessions scheduled for the month of January. That has changed, and the reason is a looming decision on school start times.
Board President Michelle Fullhart said in an email a work session set for 7:30 a.m. Monday, Jan. 27 is all about school start times.
There are three considerations the board must take into account with any decision to adjust the start times for students and staff.
First, the board must make a decision on whether to implement a three-tier bus scheduling system, which will relieve the stresses on the transportation system which now has up to 26 routes, without a regular driver, per school day. The board was presented with two options at the Jan. 15 meeting.
“If we choose a three-tier model, our start times would need to change to accommodate it,” Fullhart said.
Fullhart
Second, HSE school days are currently longer than the state requirement. Administrators are looking into shortening the student day, but keeping the teacher school day the same, which could impact student start times.
“The extra time teachers would be at school without students would allow for professional development and collaboration time,” Fullhart wrote in her email. “This would eliminate the need for early release days for students (currently on Mondays), which we know are not convenient for our families. Our elementary students would be going 1950 minutes a week and grades 5-12 would be going 2100 minutes a week.”
Thirdly, flipping start times is also possible, with elementary students starting class earlier and secondary schools beginning classes later.
“Although this is a separate issue, flipping and also going the three-tier model would allow for closer start and end times, we have been told, since the elementary day isn’t as long,” said Fullhart. “This is a confusing issue because, and further complicating the matter, is the fact that HSE has more schools, more students, and more square miles to consider in our transportation plan than other districts who have made changes.”
Although regular school board meetings are live streamed and video recorded, work sessions are not included in the video program.
Work sessions are normally a time for school board members to discuss an issue before taking a vote. The start time issue is an item on the agenda for information, not action, on the Jan. 29 regular board session agenda.