Council Bluffs Public Schools will change their start times next year to save money.
In March the Iowa legislature ruled that the district will only get a 2.25% perfect increase, and they said that is not enough to balance the budget.
To avoid cutting programs or jobs superintendent Martha Bruckner said they are going to change the start times for every school.
“Next year we will have three different times, one for elementary, one for middle school, one for high school, that way you use fewer busses and fewer drivers and that causes to save money every day,” said Bruckner.
The breakdown of the new times are:
Elementary school: 8:55am-3:45pm (10 mins later)
Middle school: 7:30am- 2:30pm (25 mins earlier)
High school: 8:10am to 3:10pm (20 mins later)
The district said it will save 400-thousand dollars a year.
Parents were just told the new start times this week.
“At first I was skeptical, but then when I thought about it, instead of having five or six different busses going in the same direction you have one bus picking up and one location and dropping off at another, so it saves,” said Lora Callaway.
Others were worried about the early start time for the middle school.
“Ours are concerned about the sleep time and now they are going to have to go to bed even earlier and a lot of them are in after school activities so they will rush home, eat, do homework and then right to bed,” said Jena Olsen.
Bruckner said she realizes the impact the new times will have on some families, but says they tried to keep the changes minimal.
“What we are trying to do is the scenario that will save us the most and it has the least amount of change except for middle school,” she said.
For more information in the school start time changes click here.
