Q.C. schools to review start time changes

The Queen Creek Unified School District will look more into a proposal to change school start times for next school year after too many questions and concerns arose from parents and staff.

The district needs to "tweak" and "massage" the proposed new start times more before bringing it back to the governing board, which discussed the issue Tuesday night, Superintendent James Murlless said.

Although more community meetings will not be held, Murlless said a district committee will take the comments already received and come up with another proposal.

"I don't see more community meetings as being the answer to this," he said. "We got from the public what we needed to get from them."

The new proposed start times could be brought to the school board as early as the next board meeting on March 4.

Parent Shane Leonard, who has two daughters in elementary school, said he's concerned about the time changes because he just doesn't see a reason for it.

"I think they are trying to make changes for change's sake," he said. "I largely think they are trying to find a way to make this happen as opposed to should this happen. It sounds like it's a solution looking for a problem.

"There's so much concerning the time change, it sort of boggles me why it's still being considered for next year," he said.

The district has said the proposed changes are in response to elementary school principals wanting to start earlier, elementary school parent complaints about late school activities, and aligning middle school end times with nearby districts for after-school competitions.

Elementary schools next year were originally proposed to start 25 minutes earlier, at 8:25a.m.; middle schools an hour later at 8:50 a.m.; and high school classes 10 minutes earlier at 7:40 a.m.

Also at Tuesday's board meeting, membersapproved the original boundary change recommendation affecting Jack Barnes and Queen Creek elementary schools.

About 145 kindergarten through fifth-grade students living primarily in the Orchard Ranch development east of Ellsworth Road and south of the Queen Creek Wash will be moving to Queen Creek Elementary next year from Jack Barnes.

Sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students from Frances Brandon-Pickett Elementary and Jack Barnes will feed into Queen Creek Middle School. Desert Mountain and Queen Creek elementary sixth- and seventh-graders will go to Newell Barney Middle School, which opens in the fall on the northeast corner of Sossaman and Riggs roads.