INTERVIEW — MICHAEL DURSO – President and District 5 School Board Member for the Montgomery County Public Schools Board of Education
Debate over school start times flares anew. (Washington Post) — Nearly two years after Montgomery County leaders voted to start the school day later so teenagers could get more sleep, the debate that many thought was settled shows signs of making a comeback in Maryland’s largest school system. Principals in elementary schools have been speaking out about the toll of schedule changes — drowsy children, longer bus rides, families strapped for child care. Employee unions are urging a return to the school hours of old, saying it would be best for students and staff. But parents who support later school days have weighed in, too, with many emailing letters backing the changes adopted in early 2015. “Please do NOT revert to old bell times!!!” one high school parent wrote. “If anything I wish high school bell times were later.” The issue came up briefly at a school board meeting in December and is on the agenda for the Jan. 10 meeting. “I think there have been some unintended consequences,” said Michael A. Durso, board president. “We’ll look at it and discuss it and maybe there are some angles we haven’t thought of,” he added. “We’re just kind of exploratory at this point.” The 2015 decision to reset the 7:25 a.m. opening bells of high school 20 minutes later — to 7:45 a.m. — followed more than two years of study and debate and was viewed by some elected leaders as a no-cost “first step” toward healthier school hours for teenagers. Supporters have argued that later high school start times are in line with research showing that adolescents are biologically wired for later bedtimes and wake-ups, and that lack of rest is linked to increased risks of depression, car accidents and other problems. But the changes at high schools affected schedules across the 204-school system. Elementary schools, which open in two waves, now start at 9 a.m. or 9:25 a.m., 10 minutes later than before, and their dismissals come 20 minutes later, so the length of the school day has been extended.
