People in Decatur have made it clear they don't want the city's schools to start too early.
Earlier this year, parents beat back a plan to move up the starting time at the city's four elementary schools by 15 minutes.
Tuesday, high school and middle school parents did the deed.
Decatur High principal Lauri McKain sent an e-mail to parents Tuesday morning announcing that both the high school and Renfroe Middle School would start classes next year at 7:45 a.m., 50 and 45 minutes earlier than this year, respectively.
By Tuesday night, the city’s school board -- after hearing from nine parents and one student speak out against the plan, all of them citing sleep deprivation as a concern -- rejected the plan, saying it wanted to reconsider start times for each of the city’s seven schools.
Board member Julie Rhame said she had made up her mind hours before the meeting even started.
“Every study I’ve ever seen shows that teenagers both go to bed later and sleep longer," said Rhame, who voted with board member John Ahmann against the proposal. "I feel anything before 8 o’clock is too early.”
At the heart of the push for earlier times is the school district’s new transportation plan. With Decatur adding one school next year, the Fifth Avenue Academy, the system needs new bus routes. It also has to rework its pickup and drop-off zones, where buses park, and specific locations for crossing guards.
The school board approved the new transportation package Tuesday without the early start times.
“We’ll just have to take more time to think about this,” Superintendent Phyllis Edwards said Wednesday afternoon.
Edwards estimates as many as 80 percent of the system's students use one of the 14 school buses that cover Decatur's 4 square miles. The system has done away with a "hub" system, eliminating the need for children to transfer from bus to bus. The parents of younger students also don't want their children riding with older kids.
“Given all these considerations, I can’t see how start times can be the same for everybody," Edwards said. "Somebody’s going to have to start early.”
Edwards said she doesn't know when a final decision on the start times will be made. It could come as early as April 25, at the school board's all-day budget meeting, she said, though it will more likely come up at the board's meeting on May 10.
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