School days in the Princeton School District are expected to look a little different for the 2024-2025 school year. Different by 15 minutes to be exact.
Following a recommendation from the district’s Start Time Task Force, the Princeton School Board voted to approve a change to the school start times as a short-term solution for the next school year during the Princeton School Board meeting on Tuesday, May 21.
The Start Time Task Force was developed by Princeton Primary School Principal — and future Princeton Middle School Principal — Sarah Marxhausen, the school board, and Superintendent Ben Barton to conduct research and develop possible solutions to the school start times in the district with the goal to eventually provide the school board with a recommendation.
The task force is composed of multiple community members including teachers, coaches, bus drivers, business owners, parents, and more to help explore all sides of the issue and find a solution that works best for most.
Through conducting research and engaging in multiple discussions on student sleep needs, transportation, after school activities, and other factors, the task force was able to come to the school board with a short-term and potential long-term solution to adjust school start times.
The short-term solution the task force recommended to the school board was to move the start times up by 15 minutes so the school day begins and ends earlier.
The reason for the short-term solution is that by moving the start time up, it would provide some relief to the most pressing issues the schools are facing with their current start times: student access to qualified teachers in the last hour of the school day for middle school students due to teachers who are also coaches and students in activities needing to leave school early.
The Start Time Task Force also said that the adjusted start times would align with the most current research on sleep studies, and would allow for a transition that eases the district toward the desired long-term solution.
The change to start times for each school in the district are as follows:
- The Princeton Primary and Intermediate Schools currently go from 7:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the new school day would be from 7:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m.
- The Princeton Middle School currently goes from 8:50 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and the new school day would be from 8:35 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.
- The Princeton High School currently goes from 8:45 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. and the new school day would be from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
- The Student Services currently goes from 8:00 a.m. to 2:50 p.m. and the new school day would go from 7:45 a.m. to 2:35 p.m.
The task force also recommended a potential long-term option for the district to pursue that depends on if it would work with transportation schedules and contracts with Palmer Bus Service.
The long-term solution would be a three-tiered busing system wherein each school building would have its own tier.
The three-tiered system would allow for shorter bus routes and new start times for the schools while remaining in contract with the bus company.
Moving to the three-tiered system could potentially change the school start times to allow for much early end times, especially for the middle school. The following times are suggestions by the task force that Palmer Bus Service is expected to explore further to determine feasibility now the task force has school board approval.
- The Primary and Intermediate Schools’ start times would remain the same as they were for the 2023-2024 school year.
- The Middle School’s school day would be from 8:15 a.m. to 2:45 p.m.
- The High School’s school day would be the same as they were for the 2023-2024 school year.
The reasoning the task force provided for the potential long-term change is that it dramatically increases secondary student access to qualified teachers both for students in activities and students who have coaches as teachers in the last period of the day.
This change also best matches current sleep studies, and most closely accomplishes the desired result from the start times while having the least impact or disruption for families.
However, the long-term solution is not set in stone and would likely take the entire 2024-2025 school year to develop, plan for, and accomplish because of the new bus routes. With the approval from the school board, Palmer Bus Service and the Start Time Task Force will meet and discuss this option further in the start of the next school year to determine if it is indeed feasible to accomplish.
For additional details on the start times, visit the Princeton School Board website at https://www.isd477.org/district/school-board and view the May 21 meeting agenda.
Questions and concerns related to the start times can also be submitted to the Start Time Task Force at https://www.isd477.org/district/transportation/task-force.
Reach Chloe Smith at chloe.smith@apgecm.com
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