Orange: Put schools on common schedules

Orange County’s 20 public high schools will start classes at 7:20 a.m. under a new plan for common schedules across the large school district.

This past year, 7:20 a.m. was the most common start time, but two high schools started 10 minutes later and six started earlier. Oak Ridge High School had the earliest opening bell at 7:10 a.m.

The Orange County School Board will finalize the plans at its meeting July 31. Starting and ending classes at the same time across the district’s 191 schools will help administrators manage school bus schedules, among other benefits, officials said.

Several years ago, the school board discussed starting high schools later, with some members citing concerns about teens not getting enough sleep and students heading to school in predawn darkness. A survey of parents and students done in late 2016 showed support for a later start time, but the board never took action, in part because some feared it’d be too costly.

Orange staggers school start times — opening high schools first, then elementary schools and then middle schools — because that is the most cost-efficient plan, allowing each school bus to make multiple runs.

Under the proposal, all high schools would start at 7:20 a.m. except the district’s two ninth-grade centers at Colonial High School and Winter Park High School, which would start at 7:10 a.m. All middle schools would begin at 9:30 a.m., and most elementary schools would start at 8:45 a.m.

Alternative schools and elementary schools required by the state to offer an extra hour of instruction — because of their students’ low reading scores on state tests — could have different schedules.