When the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board passed its schedule of 2020 work sessions at the January 15 meeting, there were no work sessions scheduled for the month of January.  That has changed, and the reason is a looming decision on school start times.

Board President Michelle Fullhart, in an e-mail message to LarryInFishers, says a work session now set for 7:30am Monday, January 27th, is all about school start times.

There are three considerations the board must take into account with any decision to adjust the start times for students and staff.

First, the board must make a decision on whether to implement a 3-tier bus scheduling system, which will relieve the stresses on the transportation system which now has up to 26 routes, without a regular driver, per school day.  The board was presented with two options at the January 15th meeting, which you can review at this link.

“If we choose a three-tier model, our start times would need to change to accommodate it,” Fullhart said.

Second, HSE school days are currently longer than the state requirement.  Administrators are looking into shortening the student day, but keeping the teacher school day the same, which could impact student start times .

“The extra time teachers would be at school without students would allow for professional development and collaboration time,” Fullhart wrote in her e-mail message.  “This would eliminate the need for early release days for students (currently on Mondays), which we know are not convenient for our families.  Our elementary students would be going 1950 minutes a week and grades 5-12 would be going 2100 minutes a week.”

Thirdly, flipping start times is also possible, with elementary students starting class earlier and secondary schools beginning classes later.