Parents want bell times altered at an East Mountain elementary school

BERNALILLO COUNTY, N.M. (KRQE) – School bell times are set to change at San Antonito STEM Magnet Elementary near Sandia Park. This will shift the school day up more than an hour and a half less than two weeks before school is set to start.

“I was truly saddened and really devastated to get this news as I’m thinking about, ‘What is this going to cost my family,” said Maggie McGuinness, a parent at SASM.

On Thursday, parents were told by the school district that the first bell would change from 8:40 a.m. to 7:20 a.m. With a drop-off time of 7:05 in the morning and a pickup time of 2:20 in the afternoon.

One of their complaints is late notice, especially for working parents.

“Most of us have already organized our work lives around the school schedule. We have organized after-school care; we have organized grandparents. We have organized our lives around this time,” said McGuinness.

Another concern is how the weather in the East Mountains will affect the drive to school.

One parent said, “For a significant portion of the school year, these children are going to be traveling to school when it’s dark.”

Others are worried about how this change will affect the amount of sleep kids will get, as well as the amount of time parents get to spend with them during the work week. With these concerns, many parents are calling on administrators.

Another parent explained they’d be happier with a smaller time difference, like 30 minutes rather than an hour and a half.

There are still questions as to why the change was made in the first place, and a petition to reconsider the hours is circulating with roughly 150 signatures at this point.

Parents said the principal of the school wrote in an email, saying, in part, “. . . APS made the adjustment to align bell schedules with surrounding middle schools for transportation purposes.”

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Parents are urging other parents to sign this petition, vote on this survey monkey, submit a formal complaint with APS, or contact local leaders.

KRQE reached out to APS but has not heard back yet.

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