Branley: 24 min would affect Athletics and Parents' schedules

Comment by Mike Branley on August 4, 2010 at 3:43pm

I see two primary potential issues arising from starting high school later, and subsequently starting middle and/or elementary schools earlier. On the hand hand, in high school I played football at Pinkerton Academy and we would start our practices promptly at 2:45. Although we had plenty of sunlight in September, by November we would have to struggle to be able to see at the end of practice around 5. I imagine this could also be an issue in the spring for sports such as softball, baseball, and lacrosse, which start in early March. Perhaps the solution is simply adding lgihts to all game and practice athletic fields, however this is a subsequent cost to be considered.

On the other hand, if primary schools started earlier they would logically also end earlier. With students getting out of school around 2 or 2:30 PM, I can imagine working parents may have to alter their schedules to be home when their children get home or incur an increase in the cost of child care.