KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Park Hill School District Board of Education approved new school start times for the 2020-21 school in an effort to minimize the impact of bus driver shortages.
After months of research from the Start Times Advisory Committee, which included sleep research and 32 different bus-route combinations, the Board chose from three preferred options that were vetted by the public through thousands of comments online and in person.
The board approved the committee’s final choice then voted to authorize Superintendent Jeanette Cowherd to enact the changes, effective next school year.
Park Hill’s two high school will have class from 7:50 a.m. to 2:58 p.m. in 2020-21.
Three of the district’s middle schools — Congress, Lakeview and Plaza — will have class from 7:15 a.m. to 2:10 p.m., while Walden Middle School will be in session from 8:10 a.m. to 3:05 p.m.
There will be three different start times for the district’s 11 elementary schools.
Line Creek, Prairie Point and Renner elementary schools will have class from 8:15 a.m. to 3:05 p.m., while Chinn, English Landing and Hawthorn elementary schools will have class from 9:03 a.m. to 3:53 p.m.
Finally, five schools — Graden, Hopewell, Southeast, Tiffany Ridge and Union Chapel elementary schools — will be in session from 9:10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Before being approved, district leaders told 41 Action News they were considering the changes due to retention struggles of drivers with a Commercial Driver's License, or CDL. Many are choosing to work in competing districts or companies with more competitive salaries such as Amazon, FedEx and UPS.
The altered start times allow Park Hill to move from a two-cycle system for bus routes to a three-cycle system.
