District 308 Elementary School Start Times to be Standardized

Although the issue of elementary start times has not yet been voted on by the Oswego 308 Board of Education, it's looking like the new school year will see a single start time across the district.

Last year the district moved to a tiered start as they were led to believe it would save money for the district. Superintendent Matthew Wendt reported that the transportation director hired mid-year, Derrick Berlin, has said it is not an effective cost-saving method.

"In our opinion, it costs the district more money to operate," said Wendt.

He also said the two-tiered system created extraordinary issues for management this year. "I don’t want to live through what we did the first two weeks of the school year every again," said Wendt.

Wendt said the estimated savings to go to a single start time is estimated at $135,000. "It does not add up to a large percent; however, we know we’re living through some difficult times and that’s another $100,00 plus we can employ to other areas or choose not to spend," said Wendt.

The proposed start time for the 2013-14 school year would be 8:45 a.m., with buses dropping students off by 8:30 a.m. This past year the elementary schools started at either 8:30 a.m. or 8:50 a.m.

The reason for the later time is that the district is working to implement a breakfast program across all schools.

"We’ve received outstanding feedback to feed more children during breakfast time," said Wendt. He said currently one out of four students in the district is on free or reduced lunch.

The district collects funding for the breakfast/lunch programs, but at the moment Wendt said the school has about $100,000 that must be applied to those programs that is not being used. It would cost about $40,000 to have the breakfast program across the entire district.

Schools would open at 8 a.m. and the breakfast program would begin at 8:15 a.m. at all elementary schools, said director of executive services John Sparlin. 

Board member Danielle Paul said she felt the time switch would alleviate a lot of the congestion in the morning.

The board is expected to vote on the start time at their next meeting, Monday, June 10.