East Baton Rouge Schools eyes new start time, transportation improvements
Superintendent Lamont Cole said people are expressing interest in having later start times for students.
He said he wants to be transparent if he and the outside firm he hired to help with the process decide to go through with the new plan.
'No, we have not identified any schools. This is just to explore in what areas we could implement this and then go down the road of beginning to have community conversations as early as June, and then think about if that is a possibility,' said Cole. 'We've had requests from schools about looking at start times. Families have made requests to look at start times, so the plan is to go to the school, families, and have a conversation. We're not going to force start times down any school's apparatus to begin, but we do recognize there is a desire in this community for that.'
Cole said since the bussing issues the school system had in 2023, which included driver shortages, out of service buses, payment issues and a resulted disruption in class time, efforts have been made to change things for the better.
He also said the school system has hired an in-demand outside contractor called Prismatic Services – with a highly skilled team – to assist them.
'We have not identified any schools, but we want to begin those conversations as quickly as possible, and she's agreed to assist us in that work,' said Cole. 'In order to look at start times, there's going to be a cost. In order to look at transportation, re-routing, and removing some of our transfer sites, there's going to be a cost. In our conversations with Dr. Perito [with Prismatic Services], we talked to her about being able to evaluate all those services in one.'
Cole is assuring board members he'll continue to be transparent and public with where he and Prismatic are in this process since studies are showing that later start times are conducive to better student performance.
Board members said steps need to be taken if new start times are implemented, as families need time to accommodate a new schedule.
East Baton Rouge Schools eyes new start time, transportation improvements
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