LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Parents are reacting to the new start times for Jefferson County Public Schools.
Tuesday, the Jefferson County Board of Education voted to change start times for 48 schools.
The district currently has nine start times. Next school year, that will be reduced to three: 7:30 a.m., 8:40 a.m. and 9:40 a.m.
The district said it needs three start times for bus drivers to have enough time to finish one route and start the next.
It’s exactly three months away from the first day of school for the 2024-2025 school year and parents are now navigating new start times.
“It’s looking like we will be leaving our house around eight in the morning, dropping off one kid at Noe [Middle School], whipping back around to our neighborhood and then dropping off two other kids an hour later and then doing the same thing in the afternoon,” said Cheryl Gribbins, a JCPS parent.
Gribbins has three students in district schools. Her fourth grader at Blue Lick Elementary currently starts at 9 a.m. but next year, she will start at 9:40 a.m.
“It’s pretty late. I mean … I understand why they had to do it, but I definitely you won’t hear me argue with anyone who says that it’s inconvenient or, you know, is frustrated by it,” said Gribbins.
Uncertainty remains for Gribbins because her preschooler goes to school in the same building but doesn’t have a start time yet.
“Right now, they start a half hour later than elementary. So, with us having to possibly transport everyone. I may be coming to school with my elementary student and then coming back 40 minutes later or an hour later with my preschooler,” she said.
She said she is privileged to be able to drive her children to school, but said it comes as a financial sacrifice.
“[I] definitely was looking into some new job opportunities and now I have a window of about four hours during the day where I’m not going to be either dropping off or picking up a kid,” she said.
Gribbins said she tries to be optimistic and believes the county has the best interest of the students.
“So I think parents would be a lot less stressed if there was just more certainty about some of these things; but, hopefully it will be kind of like last year and it’ll be a rough week or two and then things will kind of settle down and it’ll just be another school year,” she said.
The district is planning to review start times again in December for the 2025-2026 school year.
Its shortage of bus drivers has also resulted in JCPS cutting transportation to its magnet and traditional schools, except Western and Central High School.
The district said even with the new start times, there will still be delays and not all students will make it to school on time.