Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board directors voted in 2017 to have high school and middle school students start classes 25 minutes later than they had. Now the board is considering moving start times again. Now, instead of starting at 8 a.m., the thought is to start those classes at 9 a.m., while elementary classes would start at 8.
A vote on that possible change — 9 a.m. to 3:43 p.m. for high and middle school classes and 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for elementary school — is scheduled for Oct. 17, but there are some nuts-and-bolts issues that need to be resolved before the change can happen. Those issues will be discussed during the board’s August and September work sessions and regular meetings. If it passes, the change would go into effect for the 2023-2024 school year.
Assistant Superintendent Tim Hoffman and Director of Curriculum & Instruction Michael Audevard gave a presentation of the proposed plan that was updated since a discussion in May.
Audevard said a thought exchange held in May revealed some “common themes.” Among them were the impact on after-school activities (school and non-school related), missed class time, students staying up too late to complete assignments, childcare and family issues, and student work schedules. Also under consideration is a possible switch to all-day kindergarten instead of two sessions, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon.
Of the responses received during the thought exchange, Audevard said among those in favor of the change, “It really seemed that they were convinced by the science and felt that the benefits of the later start time outweighed the cost of implementing the change.”
He mentioned possible solutions to some of those concerns. Audevard said the district has been talking with the YMCA to help with afterschool care, that employers have said they’d be flexible with students’ schedules, and that there can be workarounds for athletics.
Hoffman said there would be more interaction and information gathering with the public when school resumes at the end of August. Focus groups are to start the week of Aug. 29. The plan will again be shared with the board during the Sept. 12 work session and be up for discussion on Sept. 18. Hoffman added that there would be a community conversation on Sept. 28 and a survey would be conducted between Sept. 30 and Oct. 5. On Oct. 10, he said, a recommendation would be made with the vote a week later.
But Hoffman added that transportation could be a major issue.
“This is one of the major challenges of moving school start times, especially in a district like ours, which is very large when it comes to land.”
He explained that challenge as being a matter of getting the buses turned around after an early run for the elementary school students, then having them back on the road for the older students.
“The biggest challenge is how much time you need between those runs.”
With elementary school start times proposed for 8 a.m. and high and middle school start times at 9, that means there’s roughly an hour turn-around time.
“We have an hour, 10 minutes built into our schedule in order to do that,” Hoffman said. “We believe we can potentially do it in less or in about an hour.”
He said there are some thoughts to make that turnaround doable. One idea is to reduce the number of bus stops, but that would increase the distance between stops which might be problematic for some students.
Other possible solutions include increasing the number of buses and drivers to shorter runs, finding more efficient bus routes, and possibly having different start and end times for different schools.
The plan as presented during the July 18 meeting may be found here. Interested parties can send feedback to sst@ucfsd.net.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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