After backlash, board reverses decision to start school later so students could sleep in
A month after the Grant District 110 School Board voted to start classes 40 minutes later to give students more time to sleep starting in the fall, it has reversed the decision because of backlash from parents and teachers.
Superintendent Matt Stines said the board voted Tuesday to keep the school start times the same for the upcoming academic year until it can look at the options with parents and educators, who weren’t involved the first time around. Those options haven’t been defined yet, according to Stines.
The board had voted in February to change Grant Middle School’s first bell from 7:40 a.m. to 8:20 a.m. and Illini Elementary School’s from 8:30 a.m. to 9:10 a.m.
In addition to research on adolescent sleep loss and the benefits of later school start times, the board explained in a post on the district’s Facebook page that it also looked at the schedules of the other schools in Fairview Heights, Belleville, Swansea and Millstadt, which all feed into the same high school district in Belleville.
Grant Middle School has the earliest start time at 7:40 a.m., so the board wanted to change District 110’s schedule to get it closer to 8:30 a.m., the time researchers recommend.
“Faced with the research that our adolescents would be much better off with later start times and more sleep, the District and the Board felt compelled to try and make a positive change rather than sticking with the status quo,” the board wrote in the post. “Sleep is essential for life and needs to be viewed as a basic biological imperative.”
It decided that it would have to make Illini Elementary School’s start time later, too, because there are a limited number of buses, alternating routes and a state law that requires kindergarteners to be met by adults at their stops.
The change would have moved Illini to the latest start time of the schools: 9:10 a.m., the same as Ellis Elementary School in Belleville.
Parents opposed the change
People like Amanda Pace, who said she is a single mother with four children, were vocal in their opposition to later start times for Grant District 110 on social media. Pace said her biggest concern was the cost of childcare.
After they learned about the vote from February, some parents attended the meeting Tuesday night to tell the board they already struggled to pay the district or someone else to watch their kids before and after school while they work, and this change would have increased the time that childcare was needed.
District 110’s latchkey program is available as early as 6 a.m. and as late as 6 p.m. The cost of care for one child ranges from $43 per week to $221 per month.
It could be up to $574 for three children who need care every day before and after school for a month.
Pace said that if she drives her children to school, she barely makes the 8:10 a.m. drop-off time at Illini Elementary School so she doesn’t have to pay for latchkey and so she can get to work on time.
The board’s decision would have pushed the drop-off time to 8:50 a.m.
“I’m rushing to get through the bus line in the morning, and now they’re telling me it’s (almost) 9?” Pace said. “My employer is not going to let me push my hours back.”
Teachers opposed the change
Teachers also attended the meeting to tell the board they were concerned that kids might still wake up early because of their parents’ work schedules, which could mean they are in latchkey for up to three hours and already drained by the afternoon when they’re in the classroom.
After Tuesday’s meeting, board member Tiffany Baldwin wrote a public apology on her Facebook page, saying it had been “misguided” to make the decision based on research without input from parents and teachers.
“Being wrong can be quite humbling, especially when you have the best intentions,” she wrote. “... I cannot express the feeling of listening to people you like and respect express disappointment, betrayal, and anger at not having a voice in the matter. I only say that I don’t wish it on anyone.
“As a child, I never ever wanted to disappoint a teacher, so to have a whole gym section of disappointed teachers really, well, sucked.”
This story was originally published March 29, 2019 at 12:39 PM.
