School board approves new bell schedules for next school year

Editor’s note: This story was corrected to reflect that 16% of students who ride the bus are missing their first period classes, rather than 16% of all students. 

The Marion County School Board voted 4-1 to approve their proposed school start and stop times for the 2024-25 school year at Tuesday’s meeting.

The district has struggled to get students to school on time, with 16% of the approximately 23,000 students who ride the bus missing their first-period classes.

The school board recommended the changes to meet the requirements of Florida Statute 1002.42, which is aimed at improving the quality of life, academic performance and overall health and safety of middle and high school students.

Per the statute, by July 1, 2026, “the instructional day for middle schools may not begin earlier than 8 a.m. and the instructional day for high schools may not begin earlier than 8:30 a.m.”

Additionally, the statute requires:

• The district to implement a 7th period schedule for select secondary schools;

• An allotment of adequate time between school grade levels to maintain a three-tiered transportation approach to improve on-time arrival and be fiscally responsible;

• Consideration of the bus pick up/drop times needing to be in daylight hours as much as possible.

Vice-Chair Lori Conrad, District 2, said the decision is “not taken lightly,” as the conversation has been ongoing for 10 to 12 months.

“There’s been a lot of communication, this is a big item for a lot of families and a lot of students. My job as a board member is to make sure we meet the needs of all of our students,” Conrad said.

Board Member Sarah James, District 5, said that the time has come for a triple-tiered bus system.

“I know change is uncomfortable and it can be challenging to think about how we will approach this,” she said during the discussion prior to voting.

According to James, not including the high school population, 8% of the student population will be “negatively impacted” by the changes. She added that 54% of the county’s high school population will be impacted by the time changes (more than 30 minutes), but that no high school families in her district reached out to her to oppose.

“If the majority are going to benefit from the decision, that is our job as the board,” James said.

Board Member Allison Campbell, District 1, dissented.

“While I agree that a three-tiered bussing model is the direction the school district needs to go, I believe there are still other ways that it could be done,” Campbell said.

“People aren’t aware that this is happening and it’s happening so quickly. There are teachers that are concerned. There are families that aren’t even aware it’s happening. And specifically, the impacts that it’s making to District 1 schools, I absolutely cannot be in support of this,” Campbell said.

In the meeting agenda, the school board noted that most middle schools have before-school programs that they are exploring to “expand at all schools to provide parents the opportunity to utilize for early drop off.”

By “placing middle school in the third-tier, it only significantly changes three schools since 5 middle schools have current start times ranging from 9:10 am to 9:25 am already,” according to the agenda.