Wayzata Elementary School Start Times

NO WAY! That is far too early for young children.

Starting school at 7:20 am would be a disaster for my family. This would leave us constantly exhausted, with no family time, and no time for homework, reading, or for other activities, such as sports. This is currently the situation for our friends whose kids unfortunately attend Oakwood Elementary and Greenwood Elementary. (They like the schools other than the start time.) It would make for a very long day at school for our young children, and increase our daycare costs (at Home Base) significantly. I am also concerned about the safety of my young kids waiting at the bus stop in the dark early in the morning at the coldest time of day for most of the school year. Our six-year-old daughter, as is normal for kids her age, generally sleeps between eleven and twelve hours a night. We pick up her and her brother at Home Base as soon as we can get off of work and get there, which is usually about 6 p.m. With a bus pick-up time as early as 6:45 a.m., she would have to be up for school at 6 a.m., and, for her to get enough sleep, she would need to be in bed by the time that we now pick her up from Home Base! Of course, we also need to make and eat dinner, help her with homework, read with her, get her showered and ready for bed, and, ideally, spend a little time together. Our son participates in Wayzata football, Fusion soccer, and religious school in the evenings (depending on the day and season). Because the coaches are volunteers who work normal business hours, they are unable to start practice earlier than 6 p.m. Currently our son gets home from football practice around 8:30 p.m., and then eats, showers, does homework, and gets ready for bed. As a fourth grader, he usually sleeps about ten hours a night, from 9/9:30 to around 7/7:30. This leaves him time to read in the morning, study for religious school, finish up homework if needed, as well as eat breakfast and get ready for school before getting on the bus around 8:45. If he needed to be on the bus

My son just started kindergarten this year within the Wayzata district. A 7am start time would greatly effect him and would not be good for our household and many others. Please do not pass this .

As a parent of 2 elementary school students in Wayzata, I would be happy to have my taxes raised in order to have more buses and everyone start later. My kids are currently at Oakwood and it is too early already. It requires aftercare due to the early release time, making our night at home very short before bed.

Our kids go to Oakwood we love Oakwood except the early start. Our kids do not participate in extra curricular activities unless we can find weekend only activities. Having an early start is not conducive to working parents the boys go to Home Base until 5pm that's a long day for a young kid, on the bus at 7:19. The rush from 5pm getting home, making dinner, homework, to bed. Very little quality quality time as a family. Life is hard enough as an adult to have to be on the go from morning to night I feel badly having my young children in a rushed life at their young age. If the issue is buses can get more busses? Or can parents help with driving?? I feel strongly that no elementary school should start early.

Please, add more buses to have ALL schools' start times normal and not to jeopardize our kids' sleep and overall health. Thanks!

I completely support later start times for high schoolers, but not if it causes such a significant change to elementary student start times. Please add buses or maintain the current schedules!

The proposed time changes are absolutely absurd - we will fight to reject this change along with all the other parents.

Changes to start times for high schoolers based on research while ignoring the research for elementary school goers is not scientific, logical, or justifiable. Science is blind to $$ and bus schedules. By all means start high school later but do so by adding buses, not by compromising kids of other ages.

This proposal is a terrible idea that completely disregards the impact the change will have on elementary age students and their performance. I am amazed such a thinly substantiated concept, with such obvious negative side effects, would actually be considered for adoption. We expect better.

Keep elementary school time the same.

I do not support changing the elementary school start times to 7:20. It is too early for such small kids.

I support this petition

I do not support the new school times. Younger children need more sleep which is imperative for good learning. For the kids to get a 11 to 12 hour sleep they have to be in bed at 6 pm. That is ridiculous. You can reason an adolescent to go to bed early of they need to but it does not work with a 5 year old. Therefore I strongly urge the school district to reconsider the timing for elementary school.

The proposed earlier start time for elementary students has not addressed how schools will accommodate the significant increase in after school Home Base needs. The (largely false) assumption that families have one parent at home was evident in the pros listed (and in the absence of negatives listed) for the research-based scenario. In addition, details on why adding busses is not a viable option would have been useful (was the potential investigated? If so, what were the estimated costs and how was it deemed a prohibitive factor?)

I do not support the early start proposal for changing Elementary Start times.

Many parents who have commented on here, prior to me, have done an excellent job voicing valid concerns on behalf of the rest of us. I agree with everything they have written as well as the outstanding letter written by Ryan Wilson. I too felt the school board proposal was strongly biased toward helping the high school students while ignoring the negative implications to the elementary students. As a working parent, ending school at 2:10pm does not provide me more 'family time' with my kids which the school board touted over and over as a 'positive'. Also, not all elementary kids are 'already up early anyway'. My kids go to bed at a good time and I still have to wake them up at 8am almost every morning to make it to school by 9:10. In order to get enough sleep with the 7:20am start time, they would have to be in bed by 7pm which is NOT POSSIBLE for many reasons, including: elementary school sports practices (as young as 1st grade) which end as late as 8pm, elementary age children attending the sports events/practices of older siblings, the family-time which for working parents, often takes place starting at 6pm (or later!), and then there is dinner, errands, homework, and heaven-forbid we try to have some fun in there as well! There are other options not even considered in the School Board proposal including adding additional buses to allow everyone to start later. Let's focus on the win-win scenarios rather than pushing high school later at the expense of our little ones. I hope the responses of all these concerned parents (many of which have high school students as well) lead the School Board to evaluate this further and not rush to a decision based on seemingly one-sided 'research'.

1. Although we support the motivation which Wayzata school district is trying to enhance adolescents’ school performance by delaying their school start time, we, a group of 100 plus families do not see the memo has addressed any potential detrimental impact to elementary kids if their start time is changed to 7:20 from current 9:00am. 2. We raised our deep concerns that having very young kids waiting for buses in dark, cold Minnesota street before 7am is UNSAFE. We have found research report proved this flip-flop strategy is not feasible simply because of this safety concern. 3. Furthermore, our parents have found scientific evidence that younger kids need 10 to 11 hours sleep time, and their biological clock won’t end their sleeping till somewhere between 7 or 7:30 am. We have found reports indicate that early start will impact elementary students’ performance and potentially their healthy growth. For example, some kids have after school sports training starting at evening, which will not end until 8 pm. 4. Although the memo cited the change will enhance the family time, we can assure you this is not the case for any working families with young kids in my neighborhood. To the opposite we will have less quality family time, since kids need to be in bed by 7-8pm and some working parents do not get home until 6:30 or later. The evening will only be filled with dinner and rushing the kids to bed. This almost left no quality family time after kids’ school work. 5. This arrangement will also increase financial burden to some families, as they will experience longer after school care. Therefore we strongly urge the district and board to involve all stake holders including concerning parents in the process to develop a feasible solution to the adolescents sleeping issue.

Please do not change the start time to the elementary or middle school students

I do NOT agree with an early start time for my elementary school kids that attend Plymouth Creek