TWIN FALLS – Over the past year, a committee with a broad representation, including staff, parents, community members, and students reviewed previous school start and end times to determine if the current schedule should be changed. An initial survey was administered and over 3,000 people responded. There were two themes that emerged from that survey --1) the 2016-2017 schedule is widely unpopular, and 2) research about possible detriments to students related to start times prior to 8 a.m. is important to many stakeholders.    

Bell schedules are dynamic and complex issues that can be very challenging for large school districts. One complexity involves the transportation of students via busses to and from school. In order to alleviate wait time for students at their buildings after school and ensure against buses being over capacity, there needs to be approximately 30 minutes between the elementary and middle school release times (the two largest bus ridership areas), and approximately 15 minutes between middle school and high school. While the TFSD does outsource its busing, it is constrained by the transportation budget provided by the state and must operate within those means.

After a variety of options were discussed, the committee, with the assistance of school district staff, distributed a second survey to parent emails listed on PowerSchool and on the district website. A super majority (66%) of respondents indicated they could support or live with the schedule listed below.

After much evaluation, the committee feels confident in the implementation of this new bell schedule for all schools in the TFSD. The district is also exploring ideas for before and after school programs to help with some of the challenges the new schedule may create for some parents. This bell schedule committee will reconvene during the 2017-18 school year to once again evaluate this challenging decision and see if any changes need to me made.

If parents have questions about the bell schedule, they should first contact their student’s principal as this decision was made as a team effort with representation from all of the schools and principals can best address concerns pertaining to specific schools.