What's new

What time does school start for you?

Wow, I can't believe how early some of you have to start!! I thought there was a bunch of research a few years back about how a later start is better for our kids.
 
The high school here starts at 7:45 and we release the kiddos at 2:35. I have to be there by 7:30 as a teacher but I roll in at 7:15 most days. I stay until about 3:30 or 4 if needed.
 
lmccandless said:
In my district, if you live less than 1.5 miles to school, you don't qualify for the bus. I'm 1.45 miles (I had a crazy neighbor who had an official measurement done for our cul-de-sac) but once you're out of my neighborhood, it's about a mile down a very busy, high traffic street. It's just not very safe to walk, particularly because the traffic includes about 800 teen drivers from the high school who have no regard for pedestrians. So, car pool line it is!
Click to expand...

This is us, too. We're 3 blocks from his elementary, 1 mile from his middle school, and probably a half mile from his High school. He'll never meet the criteria for bus. And he has to cross one very busy and dangerous road to get there. If he had friends near us I'd feel better about it, but they're all across that road... And most of them get rides, too. Which is why the drop off and pick up lines are so insane.

Really it's just a neighborhood thing. The district has tried to figure it out for years and make it easier and safer for kids to walk or ride to school, but as a neighborhood we have a high concentration of kids who have parents available to drive them. Even a lot of the kids on the bus routes get rides. And the schools were built back before that was so common so it's poorly designed, with no room to really change it.

On the other side of the city it's less of an issue, they have more kids who ride the buses and their schools are in areas with less residential concentration. Our schools were plopped right in the center of a dense population of helicopter parents. Haha.
 
my eldest has to leave here at 8.45 latest to get there for 8.40 start time and my middle one is only end of the roazd so leaves at 8.30 for school to start at 8.40 to so that gives him 5 mins gossip with hid friends before school starts i get them both up at 7am to be ready in time
 
I think we start early, because it is so blasted hot here most of the year. Our hottest time is 4-6pm. We started school the 12th of August and get out before Memorial Day in May, and that is because of the heat also.
and if we get a dusting of snow, it is a snow day here.
 
Both the high school & middle school start around 8am. Luckily, the schools my kids go to are about a half mile apart, so I don't spend all morning in lines. However, there are some mornings when it seems like none of the middle school parents remember how to drive or take turns! It's weird and can get dangerous for the kids in the cross-walks. Most of the time it's not too bad, and I'm home in about 30-40 minutes after leaving.
 
Elementary is 9:10-4:00. MS is 8:00-2:50 and HS is 7:25-2:15. All are bussed in our town as no sidewalks or neighborhood schools.

We dont have a pick up line for elementary. If i need to pick up then I have to park, get buzzed in, go through security and wait in an indoor line for dismissal after the busses have left. Fun times.
 
Primary and High School for my girl's start at 8.30 am and finish at 3pm. They go to Catholic School so they do an extra 1/2 an hour a day all through the year and get an extra week more than the Public Schools during the Christmas holidays. This is affectionately called Catholic Week by the parents as they all stream off to the beach together (well at my school they do) and take advantage of the off-season rates at the resorts .... I don't go as I see enough of them during the year :giggle
 
School starts at 8:00 a.m. for the boys (first grade). Right now my husband takes them and drops them off around 7:45. However, the boys are also in the before & after school program, so sometimes we take them as early as 7 a.m. if we both have early work commitments.
 
It would kill me having those early starts!

Primary school starts at 9, finishes at 3. We don't have drop off lines, just drop outside school and park in street in the afternoon, usually 10 minute wait. Henry will walk or ride to school when we move, a bike path runs right through the middle of our suburb straight to the school.

Meaghan is in high school, they start at 8:45 and go through until 3:25. The buses are just the local buses, that do the school run but can take normal public if they want to suffer through a bus load of school kids, costs about $50 a term... Meaghan walks at the moment but will catch a bus at about 8:10 when we move.

It is pretty easy here really...

I'm interested to know how many kids go to your schools. There are about 450 in Henry's Primary school (K-yr 6, ages 5yo - 13 yos) and about 1000 in Meaghan's school (runs from yr7-yr 12, 13yos - 18yo's). Class sizes vary but the younger classes K-yr2 can only have a max of 22 at the start of the year.
 
Both of mine go to the same school (2nd and 4th grade) and drop off is at 7:45, school starts at 8:00. They get out at 3:10. My hubby drops them off which thankfully takes about 10 seconds and then I get off at 3:00 and go pick them up. My pick up takes a little longer because I take a bunch of kids home after school for parents who are still working. We go to private school, and most don't ride the one bus that does come there because it takes SO long.
 
I teach MS/HS and we start at 8:10, but I have to be there at 7:45. My boys (2nd grade) don't start until 8:30, but get dropped off by 7:30 at the latest. They get out at 3:10 and our car rider line is crazy too.
 
Our local elementary schools start at 8:35am. The girls get picked up on the bus at 8:15. It's a good time I think - not too early, not too late. They get out at 3:40pm. So interesting to hear all the different times!
 
My city has lots of smaller schools in different neighborhoods. We're like the bicycle capital here, so I wonder if the small neighborhood school concept was built on the idea of biking/walking to school. Our school literally does not even have a single bus. For field trips parents had to carpool. (I'm hoping maybe that was unique to kindergarten and hopefully the district has a small fleet of buses for field trips.)

The ironic thing is that in my town, parents can choose to send their kids to a different school, other than their "neighborhood" school. You have to apply and if the numbers work out you get to transfer. So that means there is a substantial number of students that do not live within biking/walking distance. It seems strange to me that you can have a bunch of kids in your neighborhood, and they all go to different schools. And all these people drive to drop off and pick up. It just seems crazy to me.

I actually did transfer out of our "neighborhood" school ... because my "neighborhood" school was farther away than the one just down the street (because of the way the boundaries were made). I picked the school that was closest because we would be able to take a 5 minute bike ride to get there. With all of the parents fighting to park on the street, biking is actually more convenient than driving!
 
Man and here I thought our kids started early enough but man they have it good!

Youngest is still at Primary school (Yr 6 and her last year there) they start at 9 and finish at 3pm and

oldest is in her first year at the local college (High School) (Yr 7) they start at 8.35 am but have to be there at 8.25 and finish at 3.15... thankfully its a short hop around the road... though now hardly ever go and pick her up she prefers to scooter home... never gonna happen with a bus for my kids you have to live more than 2km (I think) away...

still have to get them up at 7 in the morning otherwise they would never make it... both in uniforms but both primp their hair every single dang morning!
 
School starts for my youngest, who is in elementary school, at 8:30am. However, you have to have them dropped off by 8:10am or they are considered tardy. He gets out of school at 2:45pm. My oldest in Middle School and school starts for them at 7:45am and gets out at 2:55pm. Well, and then Noah has football practice til 5:15pm. Oh, and the coaches can't seem to tell time so, that really means 5:30pm or later...lol.
 
My girls get picked up at our driveway at 8:30 and dropped off at 4pm - door to door service - I can't complain.
 
Back
Top