Poll: Keep start times same

Orange parents don’t want to change the 7:20 a.m. high school start, survey shows

Most Orange County parents want no changes to high school start times, now set at 7:20 a.m., if pushing back the first bell means big changes to elementary and middle school schedules, according to survey results released Wednesday by the school district.

More than 53% of parents who filled out the online survey said they “strongly support” leaving school schedules as is. Less less than 20% indicated strong support for the three alternatives.

School district employees, students and community members also favored the no-change option over the three alternatives, the results showed.

The proposed alternatives would push back high school start times but would require elementary schools to start earlier or later and middle schools to start later, with one option having middle school classes start at 10:15 a.m. and run until nearly 5 p.m.

The district only proposed “cost neutral” options that would spare it the expense of buying more school buses and hiring more bus drivers, so schedules that pushed back high school start times but left the other schedules alone were not proposed.

The Orange County School Board, which reopened the issue of high school schedules in January, is to discuss the survey results at a meeting Thursday afternoon. The meeting will be live streamed on the district’s website via the “start time” icon.

Five new members joined the board in late 2018, and they wanted to look at high school schedules in the wake of yet another national study — a 2018 one