OKC may adjust school start times
Oklahoma' s largest school district is considering new start times for all of i ts schools, as district officials hope to schedule a later morning for high-school students.
Elementary, middle and high schools in Oklahoma City Public Schools could change the time of their morning bell as soon as next school year, though the district Board of Education could delay implementation to 202122, if the changes are even approved.
District officials presented a tentative recommendation to the school board during a work session on Monday.
Administrators are discussing a 7:50 a.m. start time for elementary schools, which would end the day at 2:40 p.m.
High schools would start at 8:40 a.m. and finish classes by 3:30 p.m. Middle schools would have the latest day, operating from 9:30 a.m. to 4:20 p.m.
The ideas are still in a draft phase, and no official recommendation has been finalized.
“Although the research is strong, we want to be sure this would be a fit for OKCPS,” Superintendent Sean McDaniel said. “My teams are currently gathering input from a variety of stakeholders and having conversations about timing and logistics for such a shift. If we do move forward with this change, I will make my recommendation to the Board of Education no later than March 2020.”
Change could be delayed
If McDaniel makes a formal recommendation, the board would vote on whether to approve the new start times and, if so, when they would take effect.
The board expressed support for the changes, but some members said they preferred to wait until the 2021-22 school year before altering schedules.
“I don' t think we have the time to really be as thorough, to be as successful with it to implement this fall ,” board member Gloria Torres said.
With classes beginning at 7:35 a.m., high schools in Oklahoma City have some of the earliest start times in the state for ninth through 12th graders.
Lawton Public Schools also rings in its high schools at 7:35. Only one high school in the Oklahoma City distri ct starts at a later hour — Classen School of Advanced Studies at Northeast, which begins at 8:20 a.m.
Elementary schools also start at 8:20 a.m. while middle schools begin classes at 9:10 a.m.
Research supports change
National medical research and local school data have motivated administrators in the district to make a change, said Brad Herzer, assistant superintendent of secondary schools.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommended middle and high schools start classes no earlier than 8:30 a.m. to give students the opportunity to get eight to 10 hours of sleep.
A 2014 study from the Centers for Disease Control found 83% of high schools and 93% of middle schools in the U.S. started before that time.
District officials collected data from the first semester of this school year and found students struggled to arrive on time for their first class more than any other class period.
High schools in the district that start at 7:35 a.m. had an average of 8.8 absences for their first period, the most of any hour in the school day.
High schools counted 52,741 tar dies for the first class period but only 14,133 for second period, Herzer said. Firstperiod absenteeism also impacted some students' track toward graduation.
In the first half of the school year ,386 high-school students received no credit for their first-period class because of absences, despite passing the course.
The number of students failing to receive credit dropped to 200 for second period and even lower for the remainder of the school day.
“I know that it will have an impact on the number of students who receive credit, which leads to increasing graduation rates (and) less likelihood of dropouts,” Herzer said. “I think we all agree it's the right thing to do.”
Bus schedule challenges
The district' s bus schedule prevents elementary, middle and high schools from starting at the same time, with too many students for buses to transport at once.
This means all schools in the district would have to adjust if administrators wanted to move high schools to later in the morning.
However, officials declined to give high schools the latest start time.
Finishing the classes at 4:20 p.m. could interfere with students' afterschool jobs, they said.
Changing school start times could push the district to establish before- and after-school care at more elementary sites.
Jamie Polk, assistant superintendent of elementary education, said conversations are already taking place to determine the cost of implementing after-school care at every elementary.
Only six elementary schools in the district have after-school care programs, which are funded through a block grant. All elementary schools allow parents to drop off students as early as 7:30 a.m.
Additional grants might be able to fund afterschool care at more sites, Polk said. However, the district might incur extra cost for every elementary to have an after- school program.
Child care assistance could be positive for district enrollment, board member Charles Henry said.
State data shows the district has lost more than 5,000 students over the past five years .“I could see a lot of parents enrolling their children back or keeping their kids in Oklahoma City Public Schools, despite what's going on, because we have a before- or after- care program,” Henry said.