Last school year, Loudoun County decided to push school times back for everyone, moving high school from starting at 9:15 to 9:30 am. This change was made due to the shortage of bus drivers within the county and was supposed to cut down on the amount of second runs to and from schools.
Students have activities and other extracurricular activities that have kept them from having enough time to complete assignments. Practices have been moved to later in the day, these practices cut down on students time to complete their assignments after school.
The later school time supposedly gave students more time to complete work after extracurricular activities. This pushed extracurricular activities back and resulted in the same amount of time to complete work.
“I think our current schedule leaves very little time for students and teachers to finish their work and find the real joy in education,” said Amelia Speirs, English teacher.
There are people on both sides of this debate, some would like to start earlier and then be released earlier in the afternoon in order to give more time for after school activities.
“Late start times mean late dismissal times, this means that students with after school jobs can’t get to work until later in the day,” said Jessica Connors, English teacher.
There are also some people though who think that a later start time is better for students and teachers because they will then have more time to rest in the morning promoting both their mental and physical health.
“I think our schedule could do with a little update in order to maximize student engagement and educator’s mental health,” Speirs said.
