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player ready...Wilmette Public Schools District 39 school board members on Monday told administrators to keep exploring ways to change start and end times at the district’s middle and junior high schools, although a staff report on three possible options eventually recommended sticking with current schedules.
None of the three options would fix all of the four issues they were asked to address, administrators said, in part because none of the changes address the district’s current early morning orchestra rehearsal schedule for Wilmette Junior High School students.
“I don’t want to abandon this yet,” board member Kimberly Alcantara told Superintendent Raymond Lechner at the board’s Jan. 25 meeting, urging him to look at whether any of the proposed changes would work if District 39 uncoupled that rehearsal schedule from that of neighboring Avoca School District 37.
Board member Cindy Levine also wanted the research to continue, asking why Avoca’s schedule should affect a decision “based on what’s right for our students.”
The rehearsals, with a music teacher paid for by both districts, start at 7:10 a.m. Many take place in District 37, Lechner said, so students need time to get back to their own school before classes start. Avoca administrators are unwilling to change the schedule because District 37 already has a longer school day than District 39, Lechner said. Changing rehearsals could require District 39 to pay the entire cost of a music teacher, he added.
There are other hurdles to finding new schedules for WJHS and Highcrest Middle School, according to Lechner and a report prepared by District 39’s Human Resources Administrator Heather Glowacki and Curriculum Administrator Melanie Horowitz.
The district initially wanted to see if it could juggle the schools’ schedules to address four issues:
* A possible later start for WJHS than the school’s current 8 a.m. beginning. The district’s community review committee last year recommended considering a later start because of research on adolescents’ sleep needs.
* The potential to more closely align the end of day for WJHS and Highcrest students. Right now, the schools close almost an hour apart: Highcrest at 3:40 p.m., and WJHS at 2:46 p.m. The report said the differing times make it difficult for staff at the two schools to work and plan together.
* Dealing with the amount of time Highcrest students must wait after getting off buses until their school day begins. Buses now arrive at 8:15 a.m., but classes don’t start until 8:49 a.m.
* Administrators were also asked to figure out changes that would still leave roughly half an hour between the district’s three bus routes, one each for WJHS, Highcrest and its four elementary schools. The district’s 10 buses currently handle all three routes; new schedules that are closer together would require more buses and lead to higher costs, Glowacki told the board.
The options staff considered were:
* Starting WJHS at 8:25 a.m., almost half an hour later than its current start time. That would closely align WJHS and Highcrest’s ending times and shorten the amount of time Highcrest students have to wait for classes to start. But it would require an additional bus and higher costs, and music students would have a large gap between the end of rehearsals and the beginning of classes, the report said.
* Adjusting schedules for all district schools so Highcrest and WJHS could end their days more closely aligned. WJHS days would be longer by five minutes and would start 10 minutes earlier. There would be no need for an extra bus, and Highcrest students would have less time between getting off buses and starting classes. However, it wouldn’t address the desire for a later start at the junior high, Glowacki said.
* The junior high and district elementary schools would alter their existing schedules, with WJHS starting 8:30 a.m. instead of 8 a.m. and elementary schools starting at 8 a.m. instead of 8:55 a.m. End of day differences between WJHS and the middle school would be cut to half an hour, if not eliminated. No student would have to wait more than 10 minutes between getting off a bus and starting class, and there would be no need for extra buses, according to the report. However, it would still leave band and orchestra students starting very early, and with an even larger gap between the end of rehearsal and the start of school. It would require elementary students to start and end their day almost an hour earlier, resulting in concerns about after-school child care, administrators said.
Now that the board has asked for more research, administrators will review the report and will start soliciting further feedback from district teachers and other staff. They will also ask for parent feedback, according to the written report, before coming back to the board. There was no date given for that.
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy
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