County Schools May Start Earlier Next Year, Scales Says

By Kelli Gauthier, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.

Feb. 18–Stating times for every Hamilton County school may be advanced 15 to 30 minutes next school year if the school board agrees with a recommendation from Superintendent Jim Scales.

Dr. Scales said he has considered the morning time shift since assuming leadership of the district two years ago, but the timing has never been right.

“We have not brought anything formally to the board, but we’re looking at what (these changes) might look like,” he said.

School officials will make a start time recommendation to the school board by mid-March, said Deputy Superintendent Rick Smith.

Although Dr. Scales mentioned the possibility of changing start times across the district, Mr. Smith said the plan he presents to the school board could include changing start times for select schools.

“We’re looking at the viability of changing individual school times,” he said.

The current push comes on the heels of a state mandate to move the start time at Howard School of Academics and Technology from 7:15 a.m. to 8:15 a.m.

The school is on the state’s high-priority list. State and local officials agreed in December for Howard to hire additional personnel and move its start time to address chronic attendance problems and low graduation rates.

State officials said the school will delay its start time beginning with the 2008-09 school year. Dr. Scales said he hopes officials with the Tennessee Department of Education will reconsider the requirement if the new hires improve Howard’s attendance and graduation rates.

A change in start times for next school year comes with a cost.

With Hamilton County adding the Signal Mountain Middle-High School next year, the school system must provide new Signal Mountain transportation routes for some high school students, while continuing to bus others down the mountain to Red Bank High School. The district will have to add four new buses to serve the Signal Mountain area, Mr. Smith said. The cost will be about $200,000.

The new Hixson Middle School is set to open halfway through next school year, and the new campus will have an expanded zone.

The transportation issues are tied into start times. The district operates currently on a three-tiered transportation system with middle and high schools starting at 7:15 or 7:25, elementary schools open about an hour later and magnet schools start at 9.

Mr. Smith said later start times also could mean more students have to ride the bus because their parents must be at work and no longer can drive them to school later in the morning. The district may have to provide increased before- and after-school care as well, which would be an additional cost, he said.

Dr. Scales said a concern with later start times for high schools is that after-school extracurricular activities like sports and music might make for late nights.

Wayne Hendrix, the school system’s director of transportation, said his department is not considering having any students leave school later than 4:15 p.m.

Cathie Durham, who has a daughter in 11th grade at Ooltewah High School, said she isn’t overly concerned about cheerleading ending 15 or 30 minutes later. She is in favor of a later start time, but doesn’t think such a small change will make much of a difference.

“My daughter has to leave at 6:30 or 6:40 to be there (to school) by 7:15, and it’s still dark out, so it would be better from a visibility standpoint,” Mrs. Durham said.

In the past, Dr. Scales has quoted research that says a later start time can be beneficial for adolescents who do not function as well early in the morning. Like Ooltewah, most of the district’s high schools start classes every day at 7:15 a.m.

A 15- or 30-minute difference may seem small, Mr. Hendrix said, but it’s a step in the right direction.

“It makes a big difference to the kids that are getting up at 5:30 or 6 in the morning,” he said.

Bethany LaFoe, a junior at Central High School, said she hopes school officials do not change the start time for next year, because she simply does not have the time. The 17-year-old is enrolled in two AP courses, plays volleyball, is a member of her school’s student council and participates in nine different clubs. After arriving home from school at 4:30 or later, she starts in on more than three hours of homework.

“It’s pretty ridiculous,” she said. “As it is, I have no time to do anything, so leaving it (the start time), it would just be better.”

2008 SCHOOL CALENDAR

— Aug. 12: First day of school

— Oct. 13-17: Fall break

— Dec. 18-Jan. 7: Winter break

— March 16-20: Spring break

— May 27: Last day of school

Source: Hamilton County Department of Education

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