Hillsborough County is thinking of changing the school start times for elementary, middle and high school students for the 2017-2018 school year. The proposed schedule is high school from 7:15 a.m- 2:00 p.m, elementary from 8:30 a.m-3:00 p.m, and middle school from 9:30 a.m-4:15 p.m. Why, you might ask? The answer is busing. With school starting for middle and high school at 7:30 a.m and elementary starting at 8:00 a.m , it is hard to drive both elementary, middle, and high school. Due to limited bus drivers, they have to rush their students to school just so they will get there on time. Since bus drivers have to take both a high school or middle school route and an elementary route it is hard with the times so close in range. Getting to school on time is really important. I’m late to school almost everyday. I wake up at 5:30 every morning and get on the bus at 6:15, then I wait for about 30 minutes to transfer to my Blake bus. Riding a transfer bus takes way longer to get to school then a regular school bus. When I get dropped off at school, our bus driver still has some elementary kids on the bus. Taking the bus gets me to school at 7:45, which is 15 minutes late. Those elementary kids who ride with us, their school time is 8:00 a.m. Dropping us off that late and then driving in school rushed traffic is not enough time to get those kids to school. District leaders think changing school times will save money and get kids to school on time. Due to changing the school times there will be no more early release on Mondays for all of Hillsborough County, but there will be more non-student days.

In the 2017-2018 school year Hillsborough county is also limiting the students who ride the buses by taking out all the kids 2 miles or less. By doing that more buses will open up and the students will get to school on time. But by removing students off buses it would still be hard for students to get to school. Students would have to walk, take a city bus, or have their parents drive them, and not all parents have the money or time to get their kids to school. I agree we need more buses, but why not hire more drivers instead of kicking out the students. If I got taken out of busing I would have no idea what to do.

My opinion is that they should hire more bus drivers instead of getting rid of students because then you still have kids who don’t get to school on time. It takes time to walk to school, and some parents don’t have the time or money to drive their kids. I also think that we should change the school hours just a little. Instead of elementary starting at 8:00 they should set it back to 8:30, making more time to get the middle and high school students to school at 7:30.

I’ve talked to some students about the time changing and their opinions. Rishard Duke’s opinion was, “It’s okay but I don’t wanna wake up any earlier.” Marissa White said, “It doesn’t really affect me because I would still have to wake up the same time.” While high school students may like getting out earlier in the afternoon, parents are worried they will be late to work and that it will mess up there morning schedule.

Voting for this bus dilemma is in the beginning of April.  Whats your opinion on this? Should they change the school times? Comment down below!