ELLICOTT CITY, Md. — Getting to sleep in before heading to school?
For many students in Howard County, like Mount Hebron High Junior Chris Bone, it’s a no brainer.
“Some of my friends wake up at like 5:20 in the morning, and that’s insane,” said Bone.
Board of education chair Antonia Watts agrees, and on Thursday, the board will choose from two options.
“It’s an 8:00am start time for high school or a 9:15am start time for high school,” said Watts.
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That means shifting many elementary and middle school start times as well, and providing transportation for students in the process.
Part of the challenge of changing the school start times is making sure you have enough school buses and drivers to make it work.
The system is prepared to make more students walk to school, up to two miles for high schoolers, and farther to bus stops to make the system work.
It’s also trying to replace local bus contractors with bigger ones to make the system more efficient.
“I’ve been a contractor for 22 years now,” said Mike Bowen of Bowen’s Bus Service in Glenelg, “and we’re just very uncertain where we are with the county right now as far as our contracts.”
Bus drivers, like Kimberley Cookson, are even more outspoken, especially since a company out of California has landed a contract to replace them.
“How are they going to do it with less buses, inexperienced bus drivers and a system that’s broken in so many ways and doesn’t really have the money or the inclination to help anybody? I don’t understand it,” said Cookson.
Administrators say change is never easy, but it’s coming nonetheless.
“This change is being taken lightly,” said Watts, “It’s being done because it’s in the best interest of our students.”
