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The Grand Prairie Independent School District may change the times that schools start and end, Superintendent David Barbosa said.
The proposed changes, he said, are simply a matter of money. Under the proposal, school start times would be staggered for students,
depending on their grade level. For example, elementary students would start at 7:45 a.m., high school students at 8:15 a.m. and
middle school students at 8:45 a.m. Currently, school starts at 8:10 a.m. for all students. Dr. Barbosa has also proposed staggering
the end times. Kindergarten through eighth-grade students currently get out at 3:10 p.m.; high school students end the day at 3:30.
Dr. Barbosa's proposal calls for elementary students to finish at 2:45 p.m., high schoolers to finish at 3:30 and middle school students
to end their day at 3:45.
District officials estimated that staggering the times would allow them to reduce their transportation staff by 10 employees and save
more than $2 million in salary, benefits and bus expenses over the next five years. About 13 percent of high school students – about
693 – ride the bus. Eleven percent, or 525 middle school students, ride; and 15 percent, or 1,593 elementary students, ride the bus.
Potentially, this proposal will cause more parents of elementary school children to have to secure after school care for their children.
Their older children will no longer be home in time to watch their younger children. Parents who make the time to take their children
to school may have to adjust their work schedules.
Grand Prairie parents also said they were concerned about how changing the times would affect special-education students' routes
and the YMCA after-school program. Steve Levering, the district's director of transportation, said the special-education students
would be accommodated with the change. Dr. Barbosa said, as far as he knew, the YMCA program would continue.
Parent Paula Pridemore said she might have to rearrange her work schedule "if that's even possible" to accommodate different
school starting times. "I have two students in middle school and one in elementary," she said. "If middle school starts so late, I
don't know if they're going to let my kids in the building that early." Dr. Barbosa said individual principals might have to work out
details regarding students coming to school significantly earlier than their start times.
Other parents said they didn't want elementary students walking to school before 7:45 a.m., when, depending on the time of the
year, the sun might not have risen. "It won't be full daylight, but it won't be pitch black, either," Dr. Barbosa countered.
The decision to stagger school times is an administrative one and would be left to Dr. Barbosa. He said he hopes to make the
decision by the end of the month. |
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