GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – For the past few months, a task force of parents, teachers, students, and community members have been looking into whether the Green Bay Area Public School District should alter its start times.
“Our system here in Green Bay was set up in the 1990s based off of a busing schedule to save budget money, so it really hasn’t been questioned for about 25 years or so,” said Jeff Dickert, agency administrator for CESA 7, the group facilitating the task force for the district.
Most of the district’s middle and high schools start at 7:30 right now. A majority of the elementary schools start at 8:57.
“I feel tired first hour and second hour,” said Jack Michaud, a Preble High School freshman. “I’m basically sleeping.”
The district’s task force has found out Michaud isn’t alone.
“The research looks compelling as far as the benefits of moving to later start time, but I think there are so many factors that we still haven’t looked at that it’s hard to anticipate,” said Jeremy Wildenberg, the district’s transportation manager.
“We’ve done all the research study, we’ve looked at the current status, and subsidiary issues,” said Dickert. “Tonight, we’re really hoping to wrap all that up.”
Some challenges to changing start times include extracurricular activities, parent-sibling schedules, students with jobs, food service, and perhaps the biggest factor, transportation.
“We operate about 170 buses right now and we would have to pack all 8,000 kids onto potentially those buses all at the same time,” said Wildenberg.
There will be an opportunity for the public to weigh in on this. The group is coming up with a survey that will be sent out in the fall.
“You could sleep in a little bit longer and finally eat breakfast in the morning and not rush things to get up and get to school at 7:25,” said James Mattila, a sophomore at Preble.
“We’ll take all of that input and then hopping in and around December we’ll have a full report with a recommendation,” said Dickert.
The final decision is up to the school board.
Any changes the board approves likely wouldn’t be implemented until the 2021-2022 school year.
