School start times for MCPS have been in flux since 2020, from a 10:20 start time during the peak of Covid, to now a different start time nearly every day, MCPS has adopted a new schedule nearly every year for the past four years. As of the recent board meeting, MCPS has now moved to new hours which will be more consistent and include an early out on Thursdays. The new high school hours will go from 8:35 to 3:35 everyday, with early out concluding the Thursdays at 2:35. As the upcoming student body will experience high school early outs as a first next year, students and teachers are excited to move to an earlier school day.
Many students are excited for what the new schedule will mean for after school activities. Current Hellgate junior Hazel Black is looking forward to this change. “I really like it because it gives students more time after school to complete their homework and if they have extracurricular activities after school then there’s a little break,” said Black. Many students who participate in after school activities such as sports don’t end their school day until around at least 5:30 to 6 P.M., making an earlier start more appealing for those students.
“I think that the shift is a good compromise between the original, early schedule, and the now, late schedule. Making it more convenient for people who have to take care of their siblings after school,” said Marcus Brown, Hellgate junior. One of the main reasons for the shift was to sync with the elementary and middle schools to make sibling care more accessible. With the implementation of a new schedule, there is less need for afterschool programs and other childcare after school hours.
The new change away from late start also benefits many teachers’ schedules. “From a teacher point of view I can collaborate more with the French teacher at Sentinel for example after school,” said Kathleen Wyskiver, Hellgate French teacher. “It’s not as easy to get back, get parking and make it back to class in the morning,” she said.
Wyskiver also said that the change will benefit student-teacher interaction time. “I’m hoping that with a late start after school there might be some more opportunity for students to work with teachers or access teachers and supplies on certain days since they’re already here, that they might not come in early for.” Currently, many students rely mainly on lunch time to make up for missing work outside of office hours. This change will hopefully alleviate teacher lunches and other times outside of school hours.
The main concern from many students is losing the extra sleep time on Thursdays. “I’m definitely going to be late more often,” said Greybeal.
Brown also said, “With this change, I do think there will still be an issue in regards to people being late to school, as although the time will be earlier, it won’t influence people to go to bed any earlier.” Despite this, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks for many students. “I think that it won’t impact my sleep schedule as much as it will impact my ability to stay on top of my extracurriculars,” said Brown.
Wyskiver said that few students actually get up and do work during the late start time, making it less useful in terms of actual school work. “I do think that it is more challenging to get up early and get to school to do whatever it is, meet for a group project, meet a teacher–and when you’re already at school on those Thursdays that it could make it easier for students to just keep going and tackle that work,” she said. This opinion is shared across students and teachers too, as work time is often a valuable commodity in the everyday shuffle of student life. “I think that this will impact me in a positive way because having more time after school to finish homework before after school activities will make me a better student,” said Brown. Similarly, Black is looking forward to it because it will allow time to complete work. “I go to dance every single day after school and it’ll give me some time to do my homework after school,” she said.
MCPS is hoping to make this schedule a more permanent one and amend confusion and inconvenience that come from the current schedule. “I think it works better with people’s schedules,” said Black. As students and teachers look to next year, the shift in schedule is only one of the many changes that will occur.
