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Hearing held on school schedule

• The Dougherty County School Board holds a public meeting concerning its proposed staggered school start times Tuesday.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — The Dougherty County School Board held the first of two scheduled public hearings Tuesday on a proposed change to its school start times and bussing system.

Currently, 136 buses transport students to schools. The system’s elementary schools begin at 8:30 a.m. and middle and high schools begin at 8:20 a.m.

Under the proposed plan, elementary schools would begin at 8 a.m. and middle and high schools would begin at 8:30 a.m. Because of the larger gap between the schools’ start times, fewer buses would be required to operate at any given time, freeing up others for emergencies, such as a broken-down bus, School Superintendent Sally Whatley said.

The buses would be available to immediately transport any stranded schoolchildren in cases of mechanical problems, Whatley said.

Because buses are sometimes delayed from delivering children, causing the students to miss class time, the change in scheduling would help “safeguard the instructional day.”

“If there is a problem (with the buses), it creates a domino effect,” she said after the hearing. “It creates (the problem of) children coming in late or (not having) time to eat breakfast.”

School Board District 3 candidate Velvet Edwards-Riggins pointed out that the new start times would complicate certain school programs and extracurricular activities.

Whatley acknowledged during the meeting that there were some kinks to work out in the proposed change.

“We’ve gotten the big picture taken care of, but there are some details, like extended day, that we need to get taken care of,” Whatley said at the hearing.

Under the new time system, bus routes would be organized by the school system’s four high school districts, which would each have its own district manager, Whatley said. The proposal would allow the students be bused by age groups, she said.

David Maschke, a member of the transportation committee, was the only school board member present at the hearing. A handful of parents showed up.

Maschke said after the hearing that the proposal was a “step in the right direction.”

“I think that the changes that are proposed are a step in the right direction and would have a positive impact on the ability of teachers to teach and students to learn effectively,” he said.

“I think the positives would far outweigh any of the negatives because we would be getting students to school on time, feeding them on time, having them alert and ready to learn and having greater efficiency of getting those students to schools all across the county.”

Maschke said pickup times for the students would not change, as has been widely speculated.

A second public hearing is scheduled for noon today in the School Board building on Pine Avenue at North Washington Street.

The board is expected vote on the proposal during its May 12 meeting, Maschke said.

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