February 29, 2024
By Theresa Garee
Pickerington Schools is seeking input from parents regarding proposed adjustments to the start and end times for the 2024/2025 school year. The time changes would affect all grades.
Any parent wishing to comment, should visit the School Start/End Times Family & Staff Feedback (google.com) before 8 am on March 2.
For the Kindergarten grades, classes would remain half day, but the start/end times would be adjusted to begin and end 20 minutes earlier. Elementary grades would see a similar 20-minute shift to an earlier schedule.
Brad Harris, President of the Pickerington Education Association (PEA) which represents the district’s teachers, said that his organization has advocated for several years to have the elementaries start earlier.
“There are elementary students that may not get home until after 5:00 at times,” Harris said. “Additionally, elementary teachers report more behavioral issues towards the end of the student day. We do believe that there is great benefit for elementary students having an earlier school day and getting home earlier.”
The junior highs would shift ten minutes earlier to start at 7:05 am. The high school days would shift 15 minutes later.
The biggest change would be to the middle schools where their days would shift 65 minutes earlier to a start time of 7:35 am.
“My fifth grader looks to be home before three so I would have to find childcare in the afternoons for days I work,” said Julie Waites, a mother of a Toll Gate Middle student.
A text to parents from the school district read, “Research related to school start times consistently shows significant positive impacts of later start times for high school students, and earlier start times for younger students.”
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has recommended that children aged 6–12 years should regularly sleep 9–12 hours per 24 hours and teenagers aged 13–18 years should sleep 8–10 hours per 24 hours.
Bridget McGeorge, a mother of two, said, “I’m not happy.”
McGeorge said that she does not like the idea of her middle school student being home alone for an hour before her older sibling comes home from Pickerington High School Central.
When asked if she would be looking into after-school care, like the Y-Club that operates in the schools, she said, “No, we can’t afford it.”
Jessica Lawson-Bethel has three students in high school and one in middle school.
“My older kids are elated about it being later,” she said.
Lawson-Bethel questions the proposed 7:35 am middle school start time.
According to the National Library of Medicine, “Pubertal changes in sleep behavior coincide with a steep decline in deep sleep, and its EEG correlate, delta spectral power, that begins at age 11–12 years and continues until 16.5 years.”
Parents also were confused as to why the district was soliciting feedback when it had stated that the schedule would “take effect for the 2024-25 school year.”
“Seemed like ‘this will be the proposed changes for next year…feel free to give your feedback but it’s going to happen’,” Waites said.
“The district acknowledges that families will need time to adjust to their students’ adjusted start/end times,” said Dr. Alesia Gillison, Pickerington Schools Assistant Superintendent. “As we progress, families will have opportunities to share feedback, as communication will be essential. Keeping families and teachers informed about the decision-making process, the factors considered, and the steps to address concerns will foster understanding and support. Our goal is to ensure ongoing responsiveness to the needs of students and their families. The district is balancing family concerns from the Start/End Time Feedback forms, and teacher concerns during the negotiation process. At the core of all decisions will be student wellbeing.”
The district is limited in terms of scheduling options by its four-tier busing system that involves running four routes – one for each building level (elementary, middle school, junior high and high school).
While this method is the most cost effective, the tradeoff is that there is not a lot of flexibility in bus times or time between routes.
“There are a lot of variables that were involved in this decision including costs, impact to daycare, and what the science says about optimal start and end times,” Harris said. “With the four-tier busing, one building level has to start early and one building level has to end late. Any changes to one building level has a ripple effect that impacts all building levels.”
Harris said that if Pickerington Schools changed to a more flexible three-tier busing system, the district could explore more scheduling options, however that would be a cost increase.
