hillsborough county in Florida will have new start times for schools. The School Board voted 6-0 Tuesday (Oct. 31) on the new school times after the county ended courtesy busing to save money. The new school times will take effect the following school year in August 2018. A report by TampaBay.com has confirmed all this information as presented in the article.
Ending tardiness
Superintendent Jeff Eakins said that the new Bell times come from the stress of late students showing up to school. When a student is late to school, it would mean being sent to detention or they have missed the first few minutes of class.
Nearly 12,000 students arrive late to school on a daily basis and it was not flying with the superintendent.
The new bell times the school board voted for have high schools starting at 8:30 AM and ending at 3:25 PM. Elementary schools will start from 7:40 AM and end around 2:00 PM while middle schools will start at 9:25 AM and will end at 4:20 PM. But many parents are not happy with this new bell time. For so, e it would mean sending their kids to a daycare center, which costs money that they don't have, or that it could cause more problems with getting to work and not being on time.
Schools who need extra reading time have different start and end times to allow students more reading time. Hillsborough County hosts nearly 40 schools that require more reading time for their students.
These schools will start at 7:30 AM and end at 2:25 PM. The benefit for elementary schools starting earlier than the high schools would mean that they would be able to get breakfast at school before heading to class.
Planning education
In a scripted presentation provided on the Hillsborough County website, Jeff Eakins stated that high schools will start later than elementary due to the research correlating sleep deprivation and obesity among high school students.
He also said in the presentation that he promises to provide affordable child care to families of middle and elementary school students. The presentation also states that on shorter school days there will be more instruction time than required by Hillsborough County to ensure that the students are getting the benefit of their education.
But once the presentation was voted on in unison, many teachers and bus drivers have started to come forward about their pay. Teacher contracts have been dragging on in Hillsborough County and there has been no agreement made yet on how much teachers should be paid. Last year several teachers who were recently hired to teach were dismissed due to budget cuts and trying to save money. Hillsborough County's education board overspends its budget on an annual basis and with some consulting from business groups they are learning how to save money and not overspend on paying teacher's money that they cannot afford to offer.
