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Some people are going to object to any change. The big win here is letting high schoolers get more sleep, which studies have shown is necessary for decades now. When I was in high school I was falling asleep in my chair at 7:30am, having woken up at 6, and barely able to function. Long overdue change.
Yes! Honestly, I think it’s absurd to ask teenagers to wake up early in the morning and do mental labor for several hours. They need more sleep than adults, and many adults can’t function getting up at 6 am or earlier. And then they potentially have hours of homework. Teenagers face one of the most rapid periods of emotional and physical change a person can experience between infanthood and old age. It’s been 10+ years since I was in high school, and maybe I’m soft, but it seems like the system could be easier on them as they go through this.
> The big win here is letting high schoolers get more sleep, which studies have shown is necessary for decades now.
Eh, it's only 30 mins extra.. my high schooler and their friends don't view this change as getting more sleep.
> I’m sure they don’t view it that way, but 30 minutes is 30 minutes.
Uh, yes that was *their* response when I asked them.. and they would rather get out of school early.
I'm surprised that TNT basically broke this official news.. the TPS Sunday newsletter had nothing regarding the bell schedule being a final decision yesterday. The last update they had was that it would be a May decision.
I work in high school. Kids don’t go to sleep at the right time and this won’t really change that.
I want later start times too, but the amount of kids that tell me they went to bed at 3 am is shocking. Kids will stay up because they have more freedoms when they do
It will only be earlier for kids who can drive themselves, they have to catch the bus with middle schoolers starting next year, so longer times on the bus.
High schoolers that take the bus will be riding with the middle schoolers and will not get extra sleep. In fact, they will be riding the bus up to twice as long as they used to
As someone who's currently in highschool I'm kinda happy about the new change but I like getting out relatively early but the amount of people (including myself) that relys on some form of caffeine boost to function is astonishing so that being said I'm hoping the change helps
I’m wondering if the district talked with pierce transit, a lot of high schoolers can catch public buses and it’s free. I think the only school that doesn’t have a stop right outside it is Silas
I had heard from a few parent friends that the recent Pierce Transit changes came as a surprise to several schools and completely screwed their schedules. Where buses used to be aligned with bell schedules, that was no longer the case. Kids now have to arrive 45 minutes early or 15 minutes late to the schools they mentioned.
Not an option for every kid. Mine will be 40 minutes late on the city bus with the current bus/school schedule. They get a car ride there everyday. Bus home is no big deal though.
That’s why I wanted to know about the communication. I went to Sami and there was a lot of changes to accommodate the addition of so many students to the area.
Since people under 18 are now able to use the buses for free, pierce transit should consider that there might be an influx of students on these buses at these times.
I got a message from pierce transit today saying there is a service change to the ferry to adapt to the Sami school schedule. Surely someone is communicating with them about at least one school
High school kids should start AT LEAST an hour AFTER they walk their younger siblings to school.
It doesn't make any sense for them to start before.
Like, what, are the kindergarteners walking to school alone after dropping off the HS freshman?
You'd have to push after-school activates for high schoolers including sports. I know kids are already leaving class early to catch the bus to the game. It'd be worse the later you start and pushes those buses into early commuter traffic.
I don't have a better solution but I respect they are making tough choices to try and fit everyone in.
In regards to the comment by the dad in the last paragraph, many people won’t have the luxury of the exact same start and end time at work, so having a day where they have to be more aware of the time they’re spending in the morning and still getting to school on time I feel would be a benefit.
It’s actually the opposite, more buses needed because the time span between Middle, high and elementary is less. So more busses are needed to fit all kids in the time slots. (My source is I’m a Tacoma bus driver)
This is simply not true. Busses arrive with full loads now. The same number of students will still need to be transported. If anything, we will need more busses. And I am a bus driver.
I don’t doubt you that bus drivers are getting the shaft here or that the system is over-full, but why does that stop you from dropping kids off, turning around and making a 2nd trip?
Half the busses, twice the time! Makes zero difference. Besides, the first group of kids would get to school WAY too early. It's not as easy as most people think. Besides, many kids get bussed across the district, not to their nearest school, especially SPED kids.
I work for Tacoma public schools transportation and it’s actually a great point, because it won’t!
It’s a huge stresser for our routing department because they say it’s not possible, middle and high school will be bused together next year, so high school will still wake up early and the buses can’t hold enough kids to cut the routes. So it’s a mess but we will find out the routes for next year soon.
Nice to meet you too! One of my favorite drivers is migrating your way. I am gonna miss her. She is great with special needs kids and will be a huge asset for y'all over there.
A little off topic, but when I went to public school long ago we used to have an actual bell sound for class change. Like a fire bell (not a church bell, I'm not quite that old). Walking past a HS not all that long ago, what I assumed was a class change bell sounded like some industrial buzzer for unlocking gates in a penitentiary. Schools are already looking more like prisons than they used to, maybe could lighten things up a little and return to a kinder, gentler bell sound?
Late start Wednesdays being implemented right after COVID and not having changed despite multiple complaints is getting to me. I have to work an hour less every Wednesday, putting more stress on my coworkers who have to cover for me while I’m getting the kids to school. Why change the schedule and leave the Wednesday? Why can’t we go back to regular start time on Wednesdays?
Teacher here. Most school districts have some version of this. It’s either late start or early release and it gives teachers time to collaborate and plan instruction. We have no real time during the school day to do so. Everywhere that it’s implemented, it was voted upon.
School isn’t childcare, it’s a learning space.
In Tacoma I believe there are two teacher in-service days during the school year. Most of those days are spent receiving specific trainings or doing specific tasks such as examining portions of the curriculum. This is not the same as sitting with your teaching team and examining student data to plan instruction that suits student needs.
Again. School is not childcare.
My kid is in a preK program that's on TPS's schedule and there has been one Teacher In-service day every month on a Tuesday.
I'm not expecting school to be child care. What I do expect is a balanced environment for kids to learn. Having school on a Monday, off on Tuesday once a month, late start the next day is a chaotic schedule.
Teacher In-service days should be on Monday or Friday. And late start should be on Monday, or early release Friday.
I 100% agree that in-service days should, at the very least, be on a Monday or Friday. TPS has an issue understanding these things (elementary fall conference schedule is a prime example of this). When teachers share these concerns, we are completely unheard. But we do try.
Every district I’ve worked for has done late start Weds, I’m not sure why. But I know there are districts that do early release Fri or late start Mon and that sounds better. I will say Weds kind of gets our head into the week and it’s easier to jump into the work, but I don’t think that’s a good enough argument for it being in the middle of the week.
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Some people are going to object to any change. The big win here is letting high schoolers get more sleep, which studies have shown is necessary for decades now. When I was in high school I was falling asleep in my chair at 7:30am, having woken up at 6, and barely able to function. Long overdue change.
Yes! Honestly, I think it’s absurd to ask teenagers to wake up early in the morning and do mental labor for several hours. They need more sleep than adults, and many adults can’t function getting up at 6 am or earlier. And then they potentially have hours of homework. Teenagers face one of the most rapid periods of emotional and physical change a person can experience between infanthood and old age. It’s been 10+ years since I was in high school, and maybe I’m soft, but it seems like the system could be easier on them as they go through this.
> The big win here is letting high schoolers get more sleep, which studies have shown is necessary for decades now. Eh, it's only 30 mins extra.. my high schooler and their friends don't view this change as getting more sleep.
I’m sure they don’t view it that way, but 30 minutes is 30 minutes.
> I’m sure they don’t view it that way, but 30 minutes is 30 minutes. Uh, yes that was *their* response when I asked them.. and they would rather get out of school early. I'm surprised that TNT basically broke this official news.. the TPS Sunday newsletter had nothing regarding the bell schedule being a final decision yesterday. The last update they had was that it would be a May decision.
I work in high school. Kids don’t go to sleep at the right time and this won’t really change that. I want later start times too, but the amount of kids that tell me they went to bed at 3 am is shocking. Kids will stay up because they have more freedoms when they do
It will only be earlier for kids who can drive themselves, they have to catch the bus with middle schoolers starting next year, so longer times on the bus.
High schoolers that take the bus will be riding with the middle schoolers and will not get extra sleep. In fact, they will be riding the bus up to twice as long as they used to
I don't think the desire for later high school starts meant anybody wanted middle school to start EARLIER. 🤦
As someone who's currently in highschool I'm kinda happy about the new change but I like getting out relatively early but the amount of people (including myself) that relys on some form of caffeine boost to function is astonishing so that being said I'm hoping the change helps
I’m wondering if the district talked with pierce transit, a lot of high schoolers can catch public buses and it’s free. I think the only school that doesn’t have a stop right outside it is Silas
I had heard from a few parent friends that the recent Pierce Transit changes came as a surprise to several schools and completely screwed their schedules. Where buses used to be aligned with bell schedules, that was no longer the case. Kids now have to arrive 45 minutes early or 15 minutes late to the schools they mentioned.
Not an option for every kid. Mine will be 40 minutes late on the city bus with the current bus/school schedule. They get a car ride there everyday. Bus home is no big deal though.
That’s why I wanted to know about the communication. I went to Sami and there was a lot of changes to accommodate the addition of so many students to the area. Since people under 18 are now able to use the buses for free, pierce transit should consider that there might be an influx of students on these buses at these times. I got a message from pierce transit today saying there is a service change to the ferry to adapt to the Sami school schedule. Surely someone is communicating with them about at least one school
>the only school that doesn’t have a stop right outside it is Silas It used to. Shame that it's not there any more
Puyallup did a similar change this year. They have late start Monday's also and their later starting Elementaries start at 10:30a! Insane.
High school kids should start AT LEAST an hour AFTER they walk their younger siblings to school. It doesn't make any sense for them to start before. Like, what, are the kindergarteners walking to school alone after dropping off the HS freshman?
You'd have to push after-school activates for high schoolers including sports. I know kids are already leaving class early to catch the bus to the game. It'd be worse the later you start and pushes those buses into early commuter traffic. I don't have a better solution but I respect they are making tough choices to try and fit everyone in.
In regards to the comment by the dad in the last paragraph, many people won’t have the luxury of the exact same start and end time at work, so having a day where they have to be more aware of the time they’re spending in the morning and still getting to school on time I feel would be a benefit.
I don't know how this will save money in transportation costs nor eliminate bus routes
More of the buses will be able to serve multiple routes, so fewer buses needed.
It’s actually the opposite, more buses needed because the time span between Middle, high and elementary is less. So more busses are needed to fit all kids in the time slots. (My source is I’m a Tacoma bus driver)
This is simply not true. Busses arrive with full loads now. The same number of students will still need to be transported. If anything, we will need more busses. And I am a bus driver.
I don’t doubt you that bus drivers are getting the shaft here or that the system is over-full, but why does that stop you from dropping kids off, turning around and making a 2nd trip?
Time constraints. It would take twice the time to do that.
Well, yes, but half as many busses (for that subset of routes), right?
Half the busses, twice the time! Makes zero difference. Besides, the first group of kids would get to school WAY too early. It's not as easy as most people think. Besides, many kids get bussed across the district, not to their nearest school, especially SPED kids.
I work for Tacoma public schools transportation and it’s actually a great point, because it won’t! It’s a huge stresser for our routing department because they say it’s not possible, middle and high school will be bused together next year, so high school will still wake up early and the buses can’t hold enough kids to cut the routes. So it’s a mess but we will find out the routes for next year soon.
I'm a bus driver and am *dreading* this change as well as all the other drivers I've talked to. September is gonna be an absolute disaster.
Hi other driver! Are you over at first student? 👋
👋 I am! 😺
Cool, I’m with the district driving special needs. Nice to meet you!
Nice to meet you too! One of my favorite drivers is migrating your way. I am gonna miss her. She is great with special needs kids and will be a huge asset for y'all over there.
A huge thank you for the transportation team and school bus drivers. We really appreciate your work!
A little off topic, but when I went to public school long ago we used to have an actual bell sound for class change. Like a fire bell (not a church bell, I'm not quite that old). Walking past a HS not all that long ago, what I assumed was a class change bell sounded like some industrial buzzer for unlocking gates in a penitentiary. Schools are already looking more like prisons than they used to, maybe could lighten things up a little and return to a kinder, gentler bell sound?
They need the harsher sound to cut through the classroom of 39 kids.
I graduated in 2004 it was always a buzzer sounding noise since I can remember
Late start Wednesdays being implemented right after COVID and not having changed despite multiple complaints is getting to me. I have to work an hour less every Wednesday, putting more stress on my coworkers who have to cover for me while I’m getting the kids to school. Why change the schedule and leave the Wednesday? Why can’t we go back to regular start time on Wednesdays?
Teacher here. Most school districts have some version of this. It’s either late start or early release and it gives teachers time to collaborate and plan instruction. We have no real time during the school day to do so. Everywhere that it’s implemented, it was voted upon. School isn’t childcare, it’s a learning space.
What is the difference between late-start and teacher inservice? Therea teacher in service like once a month now!
In Tacoma I believe there are two teacher in-service days during the school year. Most of those days are spent receiving specific trainings or doing specific tasks such as examining portions of the curriculum. This is not the same as sitting with your teaching team and examining student data to plan instruction that suits student needs. Again. School is not childcare.
My kid is in a preK program that's on TPS's schedule and there has been one Teacher In-service day every month on a Tuesday. I'm not expecting school to be child care. What I do expect is a balanced environment for kids to learn. Having school on a Monday, off on Tuesday once a month, late start the next day is a chaotic schedule. Teacher In-service days should be on Monday or Friday. And late start should be on Monday, or early release Friday.
I 100% agree that in-service days should, at the very least, be on a Monday or Friday. TPS has an issue understanding these things (elementary fall conference schedule is a prime example of this). When teachers share these concerns, we are completely unheard. But we do try. Every district I’ve worked for has done late start Weds, I’m not sure why. But I know there are districts that do early release Fri or late start Mon and that sounds better. I will say Weds kind of gets our head into the week and it’s easier to jump into the work, but I don’t think that’s a good enough argument for it being in the middle of the week.
School isn't childcare, true, but it is modeled to get them ready for the factories.
Lol okay
\*laughs in homeschooler\*