WHEELING – Ohio State Schools is again considering delaying start times for students at Wheeling Park High School, with the idea that all schools would start the day 35 minutes later.
The matter was discussed at Monday night's board meeting.
Superintendent Kim Miller told board members, “The start time committee has already met and will continue to meet until we have something to present to the board.” “We’re trying to make that happen so they can sleep longer without putting a huge financial burden on the county.”
Miller said the committee is considering “flipping and sliding the schedule” and what it wants for each school.
Board member David Croft added that there is currently a bill in the West Virginia General Assembly that would prohibit schools from starting before 7:45 a.m. WPHS currently starts at 7:25 a.m.
“If we're going to lead the way (by delaying the start time), we should start now,” he said.
David Crum, the district's director of operations, explained the option of having all schools in the district start at least 35 minutes later each day. Under this plan, WPHS will be the first school to start the day. WPHS starts at 8 a.m. and ends the day at 3:05 p.m.
But the schools with the latest starts don't end their day until after 4 p.m.
Elm Grove Elementary School starts at 9:50 a.m. and dismisses at 4:20 a.m. Bethlehem Elementary School and Woodsdale Elementary School will begin at 9:45 a.m. and end at 4:15 p.m.
Crum said bus routes will remain as they are and there will be no need to purchase new buses or hire additional drivers under the 35-minute plan. There are no additional costs.
Currently, extra time is built into each school day to help students meet their total classroom instruction time even if they have to miss more days due to inclement weather.
The committee established parameters that likely include changing the length of the school day to accommodate school start times. These parameters will be passed on to Edulog, the same company that examined Ohio County school start times and bus route data in 2022, for further analysis.
The parameters stipulate that elementary and secondary schools can start at least 7:45 a.m., but no later than 9 a.m., and dismissal can take place by 3:45 p.m.
For elementary schools, the length of the day must be at least 6 hours 15 minutes and no more than 6 hours 50 minutes.
The length of a middle school day is a minimum of 6 hours and 30 minutes and cannot exceed 7 hours.
As the committee wrote, the requirements for high schools are more stringent. The length of a high school day must be at least 7 hours and cannot exceed 7 hours and 5 minutes. According to the conditions set by the committee, he can start the day earlier than 8:15 a.m. at WPHS and dismissal must occur by 3:30 p.m.
Edulog was paid $10,000 for its first analysis round in 2022. This new round comes with a price tag of more than $25,000, depending on the research option a district chooses.
Board member Molly Aderholt is pushing for later school start times at WPHS, citing medical research that shows later sleep benefits teens and their biological rhythms.
In other matters, the board accepted the resignation of Micah Farmer, a career and technical welding teacher at WPHS. Farmer, 53, of Wheeling, was arrested last week on a charge of felony sexual abuse of a minor over the age of 16 by her parent, guardian or guardian.
The board is also considering renewing Miller's contract, and preliminary discussions about the contract were held during Monday night's board meeting.
“We will revisit this issue in the future,” board president Andy Gerber said after the discussion. He said the issue would be taken up at a future meeting.
Miller's four-year contract expires on June 30th.
The board's next meeting is scheduled for Feb. 12 at 6 p.m. at the board office, 2203 State Road in Elm Grove.
