Jason Arndt, jarndt@shawanoleader.com
The Shawano School Board plans to form a committee to review school start times for middle and high school students.
No changes would be made prior to the 2014-15 school year.
A Community Health Action Team spearheaded by ThedaCare earlier this year sent a letter to the board asking it to consider pushing back the schools’ start times to later than the current 7:45 a.m.
CHAT members talked with Shawano Community High School members last fall during a “community plunge,” a daylong program that focuses on community health issues and connects CHAT members with community representatives on the front lines of those issues.
“We reached out to the community, including visits to the high school where we talked to some students,” said CHAT member Paula Morgen, manager of community care at ThedaCare. “We came up with several ideas, including the possibility of starting school later.”
Students said many of them are unsupervised until their parents get home from work, Morgen said.
Middle and high school students start their day at 7:45 a.m. and go home at 2:30 p.m. Hillcrest Primary and Olga Brener Intermediate School start at 8:20 a.m., with dismissal at 3 p.m. for Hillcrest and 3:10 p.m for Olga Brener.
The board last touched on school start and end times in a community forum in April 2013.
“When I first got on the board, we held a community forum to discuss school start times and bus schedules,” said Tyler Schmidt, board president. “I don’t know if it was ever discussed since. I would like to follow up and am willing to set up a committee to study it.”
Most concerns expressed at the community forum were about how long students need to wait for buses and how long they’re on the bus. Some students have to be at the bus stop as early as 6 a.m.
The board said supervision of younger children was a key issue when deciding to start middle and high school earlier.
Schmidt said he plans to discuss possible schedule changes with Johnson School Bus Service Inc. and building representatives at each school. A committee could be formed by the end of August.
Superintendent Gary Cumberland said Tuesday that community members already have expressed interest in becoming part of the committee, and he has passed the names on to Schmidt.
“I think we need to take a fresh look at it and see what all of the issues are with it … and see whether our start times are appropriate,” Schmidt said.
HOW TO HELP
People interested in being part of a committee reviewing school start times in the Shawano School District may call Tyler Schmidt, School Board president, at 715-853-1919.