Parents, mark your calendars: School board will discuss school start times in a few weeks
Parents seeking to voice their opinion in favor of or in opposition to their child’s school start time should attend the June 20 Beaufort County Board of Education meeting.
That’s when the topic will likely next appear on the board’s agenda and possibly be up for a vote.
On multiple occasions in May, school board members have discussed the issue of school start times, which were changed district-wide this past school year to be one hour later for middle and high school students and 45 minutes earlier for elementary school students.
To appease parents of elementary school students, many who say a 7:45 a.m. is too early for young children to be learning, board members have requested more information from the district on ways to move the elementary school start time closer to 8 a.m.
Three board members — David Striebinger, JoAnn Orischak and Christina Gwozdz — requested a discussion on school start times to be added to the June 6 board agenda, but it does not appear on a draft of the meeting’s agenda, which was shared with The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette.
The reason for that is because Beaufort County School District officials are still in the process of gathering data and talking with principals, according to an email school board chairwoman Patricia Felton-Montgomery sent to the board Wednesday.
The email read: “... School start times was considered for possible inclusion on next week’s agenda, but it will be on the June 20th agenda (because) Dr. (Gregory) McCord will be meeting with the gated community managers tomorrow and other data (is) being collected/discussed with principals regarding (serving) breakfast, etc. It is hoped that everything will be settled by the June 20th meeting.”
The topic could still be added to next Tuesday’s agenda, up until 24 hours before the meeting, according to South Carolina law.
Kelly Meyerhofer: 843-706-8136, @KellyMeyerhofer
This story was originally published June 2, 2017 at 12:41 PM with the headline "Parents, mark your calendars: School board will discuss school start times in a few weeks."