By Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) The Montgomery County Education Association is considering presenting a proposal to the board of education to start elementary schools earlier.
They now start at 9 and 9:25. An MCEA bell times work group proposed three different schedules that have elementary schools starting anywhere between 7:35 and 9:10.
“Our elementary teachers, especially in our Tier 2 schools, experience many days where after kids leave and they have meetings and the like, they aren’t getting out of school until 6 or 6:30 at night, and then they go home and do their plans for the next day,” said MCEA President Christopher Lloyd.
Lloyd believes starting elementary schools earlier could also benefit kids. He said developmental research shows younger kids are ready to learn earlier in the morning than adolescents.
Council Member Craig Rice, who sits on the education committee, said his fifth grade daughter’s habits fit into the research results.
“As I look at my daughter whose up quite early, 7:30, 8 o’clock in the morning, and has to wait an hour and a half before she actually starts school, those are the kinds of things that a lot of parents are looking at,” Rice said.
The change could also benefit families according to Rice. The majority of working parents need to be at work at or before current elementary school start times, which makes it necessary for them to arrange for child care before school so they can get to work on time.
While starting elementary schools earlier could benefit teachers, students and parents, it would cost $1 to 4 million to accommodate changing bus schedules.
The county council voted to increase taxes nearly 9 percent in the fiscal year that started July 1 to help close the achievement gap in schools, so Rice said raising taxes again to foot the bill for changing bell times would not be an option.
“So we’re gonna have to make some very tough fiscal choices, but if these are some of the things that we have to do to make sure that our education system runs efficiently, then we have to do those,” Rice said.
The MCEA will debate the three proposals this month and next and decide in November which one, if any, to recommend to the school board for consideration.
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(Photo: Heather Curtis File Photo)
