Montgomery County School Board Members Approve Resolution on Proposed Changes to School Start Times

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, VA (WSLS) The Montgomery County school board approved a resolution on a 4-2 vote Tuesday night to continue the discussion and conduct more research on proposed changes to school start times.

Parents, teachers and one student spoke tonight on the changes, taking up the entire allotted 30 minutes for public comments

The proposed changes would have both middle and high schools starting after 8:30 a.m., while elementary start times would shift to 7:40 a.m.

Right now, elementary schools start at 9:00 a.m., middle schools at 7:40 a.m., and the high school at 7:45 a.m.

Parents of teens who support the later start times feel it would help students academically with more time for sleep.  Others were not against the idea, but would like changes that would positively affect all students in the school system.

"Unfortunately it seems like the only option they're going to look at is elementary school start times at 7:40, high school starts times at 8:30," Jonathan Black of Blacksburg said. "I would have liked to have seen more explicit language in there that said look first at doing this change with minimal impact on the start times to the elementary schools."

"This is a cheap way to address public health because with good sleep {there is} less mental problems, physical abuse problems, etc. and is all to our advantage," concerned parent Tom Bibbins said.

School board members proposed further public hearings and forums on the issue, but did not specify when they would be held.