Warsaw Community Schools will put out a survey this week of 2020-21 school start times so the community can vote on when schools start, it was learned at the school board meeting Monday.
This is the second survey the school district has put out, said Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert. The first survey was done about two years ago and helped the school district narrow some things down.
When doing the survey, people will be given three choices of when school starts for the school district.
In Option A, middle school students would go to school from 8:05 a.m. to 3:10 p.m., high schoolers from 8:10 a.m. to 3:20 p.m. and elementary schoolers from 9:30 a.m. to 4:10 p.m. or 9:40 to 4:20 p.m.
Option B would have middle school students go from 7:45 a.m. to 2:40 p.m., high schoolers from 7:40 a.m. to 2:50 p.m. and elementary schoolers from 9 a.m. to 3:40 p.m. or 9:10 a.m. to 3:50 p.m.
Option C would have elementary schools go from 8 a.m. to 2:40 p.m. or 8:10 a.m. to 2:50 p.m., middle schoolers from 8:55 a.m. to 4 p.m. and high schoolers from 9 a.m. to 4:10 p.m.
Hoffert stated all three options have been vetted by a room full of child-care providers, and the three options are viable when it comes to athletics and the bus logistics, as well as child care options.
People will be able to rank their options from first to third. However, people will be limited to the number of times they can vote for school start times.
“We are requesting that each person only votes once and we can track that by the e-mail address,” Hoffert said.
In the survey, people can click on links to listen about the background information about the survey.
Part of it states the school district has taken a look at the start times over the last 2-1/2 years through medical research, numerous focus groups and logistics studies, as stated by Hoffert in one of the video recordings linked in the survey.
Hoffert also stated the school bus consultant’s report is linked to make sure people look at the logistics of getting the students to and from school, as well as research topics on school start times and sleep.
Respondents will be asked to fill out a demographic question to determine whether they are a WCS employee, community member, parent of a student or a middle or high school student. This is to help the school district understand if a certain subgroup is impacted by the school start time.
The survey will be sent out over school messenger, as well as be available through the WCS website, said Hoffert.
The school board will look at the results at its February meeting.
