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JAMES THORNERSan Antonio Elementary will start 20 minutes later to save money on busing. Parents say the change is bad for kids.
LAND O'LAKES - Wasteful television watching. Wandering attention spans. Excessive reliance on day care. Poor homework habits.
Could sending children to school 20 minutes later promote such educational ills? That's what parents of students at San Antonio Elementary fear.
San Antonio's school day will begin at 9:35 a.m. in the fall, 20 minutes later than this year's 9:15 starting time. Dismissal time is also later, at 3:45 p.m.
Adjusting the school day at San Antonio - as well as at Woodland Elementary in Zephyrhills - will free up eight school buses, saving the Pasco County school district an estimated $240,000.
But as a group of San Antonio mothers argued before the School Board at its meeting Tuesday, children's learning should come before the school district's earnings.
Cathlee Tomkow complained that her daughter, who she said is eager to go to school after 7 a.m., won't get to hit the books until after lunch because the shortened morning will be taken up with physical education, art and music.
Many parents will have to fork over more money for day care in both the morning and afternoon, Tomkow said.
Another parent, Nancy Johnson, said that under the new bus schedule, her child wouldn't be dropped off at home until about 4:20 p.m.
"As soon as you get home you have to start your homework," Johnson told the board at school district headquarters in Land O'Lakes.
Parent Dee Parrino cited studies that indicated younger children are more motivated in the morning and that behavior starts to deteriorate in the afternoon.
Most high schools in the district start about 7:45. Parrino suggested high schoolers swap times with elementary schoolers. Otherwise her kids, who wake up at 6:30 a.m., would squander the hours waiting for the bus in front of a TV.
"I think in Florida we have it backward," Parrino said.
Later starting times for elementary schools are the rule instead of the exception. Twenty-seven of the district's 35 elementaries begin the school day no earlier than 9:30 a.m.
It's a matter of coordinating the bus fleet to maximize a limited and expensive resource, said Mike Park, the district's transportation director.
Saving money is all the more pressing with the district reporting a $10-million budget shortfall this year, a shortfall that could lead to layoffs, school officials said.
"I agree with them," Park said of the San Antonio parents. ". . . Unfortunately, there's just not enough money."
A majority of the five-member School Board appeared uninterested in further adjustments to the bus schedule. As more than one school official pointed out, policy has been to avoid early starting times so that young kids wouldn't have to wait in the dark at bus stops.
San Antonio residents, presenting a petition with 300 signatures, listened politely but left the meeting unconvinced.
"We're not going to give up," Parrino said.
Added Tomkow: "There's always next year."