-OPINION-
After a long weekend of sports, work and leisure time, many students and staff members find themselves with not enough time to prepare for the upcoming week. Students and staff members don’t have nearly enough time to pack a lunch, finish up any remaining homework, finish last minute details for lesson plans or finish grading. Gretna Public Schools should implement a 45 minute late start on Mondays to combat this issue like other local districts have.
Millard Public Schools, a bordering district to GPS, is one district that has late starts. On Mondays, the school day begins at 8:45 a.m., instead of the usual 8:00 a.m. Students get extra rest after the weekend and have more time to prepare for the upcoming school day.
“It [late starts] gives me time to rest after a long weekend, and it just gets me more prepared for the upcoming school week. I feel like I’m a lot more awake and present in class,” Millard South junior Kaylie Renner said.
Millard’s late start system has been well received by its student body. It can be convenient for the students, but Millard staff members say late starts benefit them too. Teachers have extra time to plan, share ideas with fellow staff members and discuss academics with students. Implementing late starts in GPS would give our staff these same opportunities.
“Teachers are able to meet with other teachers and plan/prepare better,” Millard West counselor Monica Griffin wrote in an email. “It is the only time every week that teachers have the freedom to be with other teachers who teach the same content. Teaching is a very collaborative job, so the time teachers have to work with each other is imperative for students’ education.”
While, overall, implementing late starts would be helpful to GPS, issues can arise with every change.
Implementing a late start on Monday would affect the way our school runs. Morning practices would be moved, the pick-up and drop-off schedule would change and other daily routines would be interrupted.
“Late start requires community support,” Griffin wrote. “It changes the dynamic of the school day, changes bus schedules, parent drop off, and without community support, it would not work.”
Even with these foreseeable issues, a late start would benefit all members of the GPS community. Students would be well rested and in turn, more concentrated and they would have a bit more time to work on their assignments; and teachers would have more time to collaborate, grade and plan for the week, ensuring improved and more interactive lessons.
While GPS doesn’t start as early as some neighboring districts like Omaha Public Schools, who starts at 7:40 a.m. every day, and that is appreciated, having just this little bit of extra time each week would be very beneficial for the whole GPS community.
“All of the teachers and students that I spoke with really like the late start,” Griffin wrote.
