Wake County parents raising concerns about proposed bell schedule changes

I believe the administration has a great gameplan.  Squawk and flap about needing to save money on buses, threaten to change start times and get parents tore all to pieces, then don't change any start times but tell the public that you must have a new bond if you want to keep things the way they are with start times.  It's such a good plan that Tata will have even the staunchest Republicans begging for a tax increase.

This is yet another consequence of the assignment plan.  Although they won't say it transportation costs go up in new plan and they now have to do this to "save" money.  First we have kids forced into feeder patterns that send them to middle and high schools further away and siblings won't be able to go to same middle/high school campuses and now this with the bell changes.  Apparently this "choice" plan that was rushed by the previous board isn't so "great" after all.  We are just beginning to see the consequences.  Just wait until real estate values start to fall....

"I do NOT want to lose my job over having to change my hours nor do I want to pay money for before AND afterschool care,"

I do not want to lose teacher jobs either.  

Even a 10 minute change will be an adjustment for my family, but it is worth it if we can save teachers.   We are facing a $40 million dollar hole this year and the General Assembly and County Commission do not seem inclined to help. 

I appreciate WCPSS for asking parents for input so they can anticipate the pain points and perhaps even adjust the schedule but, in the end, they will have to do what is best to save teachers.  

To those who continue to (falsely) link this to the new assignment plan, I still would rather have a say in where my child goes to school over an adjusted bell schedule that we apparently needed anyway. 

I wonder if the administration is being completely upfront about the implications of the change in transportation and school start times. In the past there have been schools with the 8-ish start times so that there can be busses that do three runs in the morning and afternoon.  Now they want to change to two start times, meaning that each bus can only run two routes, yet they can do this with fewer busses? The only thing that I can think of that would make this work is if lots of routes were eliminated, making bus runs much longer, and putting more kids on each bus. I haven't seen any administrator admit to that, but how else would this actually work? This year my youngest's bus route was changed substantially when they combined two routes into one. His bus ride almost doubled in length, and he is now catching the bus 20 minutes earlier in the morning than in the past. People are assuming that a 10 minute change in start time means their bus will arrive 10 minutes later, but I wonder if that is really true.

There is one proposed scenario where Leadmine Elementary would move from 8:30 to 9:25 and meanwhile Lynn Rd Elementary, just two miles away, would change from 9:15 to 8:30.  If the transportation department needs one elementary school in this area to start at 8:30 and another to start at 9:25 why not leave both of these schools alone?

And, if traveling by bus, a student's arrival home may change by 10 minutes next year without ANY changes to the bell schedule. Routes change every year...the bus arrival time at school in the afternoon can change every year (as it is dependent on it's previous route). I am really tired of the "ME" mentality of families in this county. I am especially tired of the loudest complainers who are fiscal conservatives...so being fiscally responsible isn't for you if it MIGHT alter your schedule by 10 minutes?? A schedule change seems to be just OK for families  when their children go from elementary to middle school. And that is usually a big change in terms of start times. If you can deal with it then, why can't you deal with a 10 minute change next year. (I do realize some schools have a bigger time shift on the table, but for them, see the argurment regarding going from elementary to middle school).

As usual, if it isn't convenient for "me", it isn't a good idea.  This is a big money-saver.  Funny how families from the high schools that will have to start earlier complain that their teenagers need more sleep--I guess it's all about "their" teens since all other county high schools are already on the earlier bell schedule!  You will NEVER please everyone.  Do what's best for the system!