The Hamilton Southeastern School Board had a difficult time getting there, but finally has a decision, sort of, on school start times.  The option approved on a 4-3 vote Wednesday night sets out schedules for the 2020-2021 school year.  High School students will start their school day at 7:30am, ending at 2:30pm.  Grades 5-8 will start at 8:00am and leave school at 3:00pm.  Elementary students will begin their classes at 9:00am and end the school day at 3:30pm.  Below is the listing as provided by the school corporation, including the schedules for teachers and comparisons of the minutes in the school day:

The 4-3 vote approving this plan included support from Sylvia Shepler, Julie Chambers, Janet Pritchett and Michelle Fullhart.  Voting no were Brad Boyer, Amanda Shera and Clint Wilson.

In the original Option 2 plan, Superintendent Allen Bourff suggested the “flipped” start time schedule, allowing high school students more sleep but starting elementary classes earlier,  be implemented in school year 2021-2022.  The motion made by Board President Michelle Fullhart would create a study committee that would report back to the board in October of 2020 with recommendations on how to handle the student scheduled start times for 2021-2022.

Fullhart told LarryInFishers she does not know how many people will serve on the study committee or when the group will begin meeting.  She does envision a wide cross-section of people with ties to the school community serving on this panel, such as parents and teachers.

There were three tries to find a proposal with the support of the 4 board members needed to enact any measure .  A motion to enact Option #1, which would have implemented the “flipped” start times in the 2020-2021 school year along with the redesigned “3-tier” bus scheduling system, went down in a 5-2 vote, with Amanda Shera and Brad Boyer the only two votes supporting that idea.

A vote on Option 2 as originally proposed failed in a 4-3 vote.  A complex motion made by Clint Wilson died for lack of a second.

Four citizens signed up to speak before the board on the start time and bus schedule issue and had widely varying views, with roughly 2 speakers behind option 1, and 2 supporting option 2, but with lots of caveats and explanations.