By Megan Kelley

Review Writer

Over the past few board meetings, the topic of school start times has been brought up and discussed by Lake Orion Community Schools administration and the Board of Education multiple times.

As of right now, the district has not made any changes to start time or any significant changes to the district calendar either. However, a push from administration to consider delaying the start time of Lake Orion High School has become a larger topic of conversation.

Several years ago, Lake Orion considered implementing a “flex schedule” at the high school which would give students the option to begin school later than usual. However, beginning school at a later time meant staying in school later as well, a concept a vast majority of high schoolers did not quite like enough for the schedule to come to fruition.

As has been stated by district administration several times, research shows that high school-aged students with a later school start time perform at a higher capacity than earlier in the morning. Because of this, the idea of pushing back high school start times a bit has remained in play for the district.

“This is something that we’ve been talking about for a bit and it’s something that came up with strategic planning,” said LOCS Superintendent Ben Kirby. “There are some different items that we’ve been asked to address by the community and by feedback and the start times is something we’ve been researching and continuing to look at.”

The current changes LOCS administration is considering is a start time of 9 a.m. and an end time of 4 p.m. for all elementary schools; 7:35 a.m. to 2:25 p.m. for middle schools; and 8:15 a.m. to 3:20 p.m. at the high school.

As was alluded to by Kirby, the district released a Thought Exchange to the community to survey the thoughts of parents and students within the district.

From the Thought Exchange, LOCS found that the four main concerns/thoughts were: childcare and busing for families with multiple students; working parents with elementary-aged students; later release times equating to shorter evenings for elementary students and less time to play outside; and that after school activities would have to also push back their practice/meeting times.

LOCS also performed a Thought Exchange among staff. Key feedback from that exchange was: challenges of scheduling doctor’s appointments; shorter evenings for elementary-aged students; elementary students should start earlier; childcare for elementary-aged students; and starting later makes it more difficult for teachers to stay after school to help.

Students in the Leadership Workshop class at Lake Orion High School also contributed their thoughts with their main concern being afterschool work and activities. Leadership students did see potential positives in being able to maintain healthy habits, less morning traffic to contend with and said they would be more alert and engaged in their classes. The students also requested that Wednesdays stay late-start and that the district look into potentially having a study hall in the morning or afternoon.

It is also important to note, that a change like this would have to work alongside transportation and other district operations.

Should the district decide to move forward with this change in start times the change will not be made for the 2022-23 school year.

“At this point in time, LOCS is not planning for any changes for the 2022-2023 school year. However, we will continue to work on this. This is not something that is going away. We do feel that we can perfect it more with some of the points that were made,” said Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Heidi Mercer.

Mercer reiterated that she believed the “real sweet spot” for high school start times remains in the flex schedule plan the district attempted to implement back in 2019.

“Students would be able to choose what time they really start because for some students they want to start earlier because they work or they participate in athletics. There are students who would like, obviously, to start later,” Mercer said.

The district is expected to continue this work into next year with overall goals being to start elementary schools before 9 a.m., begin middle school a little bit later than they currently are and potentially offer more programming flexibility at the high school level.