School Board to approve new 2021-2022 class start times November 11

Recommended start tunes presented to the school board for a Nov. 11 vote

An advisory group has been working for months on how to re-arrange class start times in the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School, with the school board set to give the plan final approval November 11.

Based on a recommendation presented to the board, grades K-4 would start most school days at 7:40a,  high school 8:20am & grades 5-8 9:00am.

The committee had three additional recommendations for the board.

First, study the possibility of walking zones.  The City of Fishers would need to be involved in this.

Second, take a look at a 3-teir bus transportation system

Thirdly, study a possible “feeder system” allowing student groups to remain together as they move from one school building to another.

You can review the entire presentation to the school board at this link.

For more details on the start time study, the HSE Schools Web site has a special page devoted just to this subject.  Find it at this link.

8 thoughts on “School Board to approve new 2021-2022 class start times November 11

  1. I think this is ridiculous. For working parents, especially single parent holes who depend on older children getting the elementary students of the bus. Getting High schoolers in the earliest makes the most sense. They need to adjust to the real world of working hours in business. Middle and junior high are growing at crazy rates and could use the middle hours for more sleep. High schoolers need the afternoons and evenings as well for sports, clubs, and part time jobs.

    1. That’s simply not accurate. Most kids start high school at age 14/15. They’re STILL growing and do NOT need to “prepare for the working world”. Most will go on to college and do everything they can to make sure their classes start as late as possible. Study after study has shown that high school students perform better if they’re allowed to start school later and get that crucial sleep. Because they DO have after school jobs, sports and activities they don’t go to bed as early as kids in K-8 can be made to do. I️ think the only issue that’s valid is the younger kids getting home before their older siblings. But you’ve got about 9 months to figure that out. Other nearby districts have already made this change work and we will too.

  2. Never mind the fact that the now older children can’t watch the young ones for a couple hours till we get home from work? Even though that is a real problem for working and /or single parents, set us to the side and focus on the children. They really want teachers to be able to productively teach a five/six/seven year old after a pandemic year in which they didn’t go to school till 9:40am? At 7:40 am? You want to take on my cranky, hungry, half awake child and expect higher brain function and test scores? I would like to hear more from the teachers. They have been through so much this year already. I say we stand up and support their needs this next year!

  3. I’m with concerned parent on wanting to hear from teachers. Seems like the board always claims to consider teacher perspectives, but no teachers I know agree with the board’s decisions.

  4. What teacher wouldn’t want to stay until 4:40, isn’t that usual for high school teachers? You go to college to be a high school teacher thinking you would love to not get home until 5:30, right? And since the board based this proposal on teens needing more sleep, it makes sense the high school teens are not going the latest to school, right? Or is this because Carmel has done it and its complete arbitrary BS and politics only? The answer to only ONE of my questions is YES.

  5. I am a parent and staff member. Is 45 minutes of extra sleep for older kids in the morning worth the risks of having small children at pitch-black bus stops in the morning and coming home to empty house worth it? If HSE is going to put the safety of our kids first as they claim they do, this proposal would never even make it to a vote.

    You do not hear from teachers because regardless of almost any survey we take, Bourff and the board do whatever they want anyways so why waste the time in filling out their surveys? It is all about image, what looks great in a tweet or facebook post.

    As I talk to secondary and particularly junior high teachers, you will see negative fallout if this is approved. You will see mass resignations by after school sponsors and coaches with the schools offering less activities and extracurriculars. At the jr high level, athletic practices would now be 4-6PM or 6-8PM, especially during the winter season. A jr high athlete getting home at 8:30 at night, getting a shower, getting something to eat and then finishing homework. At what time are they actually going to be going to bed? I can promise you, students, in extracurriculars will get less sleep and not more.

    For the teachers, we have families too. You are asking teachers who coach to be at school by 7:55AM and get home after 8:30PM with this proposal. I do not know too many of our teachers who coach that are going to continue to be willing to serve and be away from their families for 12-13 hours a day. Those of us that coach or sponsor activities get paid very little for doing so and most are doing it because we want our students to have many opportunities and a great experience. The district can only stretch teachers so far and this is one step too far for many secondary staff.

    I personally have surveyed my jr high students about this proposal and just over 90% are against it. Surveys by the district continue to show well over half of families and staff are against this proposal yet they want to ram the proposal for the school board. Parents, you have done a great job going to board meetings and making your voice heard. Please keep doing so on this topic.

    This proposal has minimal benefits that come at a great cost in safety for our students, cost, and inconvenience for families in a lot of additional childcare cost or unsupervised young children, and additional stress on staff that are already hitting their limits and our being burned out by HSE. It is the job of the school board to listen to the families it represents. It is time for this board to do its job and represent the view of the majority and quit allowing the administration to ram proposals through that our not good for our schools and community.

    1. I am a high school employee and have personally heard the teacher conversations about what they will do next year. And yes, teachers will be and are looking to leave HSE because of the time change. Absolutely true. But you are correct, we see the results of the surveys which send pretty clear pictures, only to find them ignored during voting. If people inside the schools aren’t being represented, we need a new school board. I continue to request that the school board actually be forced to attend school and see what it is really like. But no, they make decisions based on loudest and richest families, and those who live in Carmel.

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