District 103 schools won't change start times in fall

Lincolnshire-Prairie View School District 103 officials have decided not to change the start times for the district's three campuses this fall.

But Superintendent Scott Warren plans to keep investigating options with hopes of making a change ahead of the 2017-18 term.

"I think it's very important that we can make this change," Warren said during Tuesday's board meeting at Wright Junior High School. "But we do have some barriers we have to look at."

Those barriers include the potential cost of such a change, which could be as high as $200,000 annually because additional buses and drivers would be needed.

The potential impacts on bus schedules and extracurricular programs were factors, too.

Officials spent months researching changing the daily schedule as a way to give older students at Wright Junior High more time to sleep. Health experts support such a move.

Board members and administrators wanted to start classes at Wright later than the current 7:50 a.m.

Students and teachers at the other two District 103 campuses, Sprague School and Half Day School, get going at 9 a.m.

To accommodate a later start at Wright, officials considered moving up the start of the day at those two buildings to as early as 8:15 a.m.

Sprague serves preschoolers through second-graders. Half Day houses third- and fourth-graders.

Wright is for fifth- through eighth-graders, although next year the fifth-graders are moving to Half Day.

Starting later at Wright means classes would end later.

One option put the end of the day there at 4 p.m., which Warren said would result in some kids and teachers missing class time so they could get to extracurricular events.

"I think that's too late for our kids," he said.

"I think that's too late for our staff."

Warren said he'd like to find a way to start Wright later but end closer to 3:30 p.m.