ATLANTA — A local school district that announced high school start times would be earlier next year is now putting those plans on pause for now.
Atlanta Public Schools notified parents in a May 7 letter that high schools would start at 7:45 a.m. in the fall. That’s 45 minutes earlier than the current schedule.
The decision came under fire with thousands signing a petition to reverse it. Now APS is surveying parents, who have until June 3 to weigh in on the two options.
Option A will have high school run from 7:45 a.m. to 2:40 p.m. Option B will have high school run from 8:45 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Each option also has different start times for elementary and middle schools.
“As you know our students have suffered learning loss as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic. Our academic recovery plan includes the implementation of an additional intervention block at the elementary level. To that end, APS is adding thirty minutes to the elementary school day. In addition, changing the bell schedule at the elementary level will also impact the schedules for middle and high school students (because of the tiered bus transportation schedule),” the district wrote.
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Atlanta Public Schools had previously announced that it planned to add an extra 30 minutes per day in elementary schools to make up for learning losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
When those plans were announced in April, Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes received mixed opinions from parents on the extended school day.
Most were not against it but remained concerned whether or not the extra minutes would be used to the students’ advantage.
“I think it’s a Band-Aid to kind of OK the situation for the moment but they’re not really pinpointing what the parents and teachers need to get through this school year,” parent Brittany Ingram told Fernandes last month.
Kenny Kinard has a student going into the first grade and he thinks adding 30 minutes to the day is a good idea if teachers take full advantage of the extra time.
“The education level has always been like that in the different neighborhoods anyway, so I don’t think that time is gonna make the difference, I think the effort of the teacher is gonna make the difference,” Kinard said.
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