Some parents of students in the San Diego Unified School District are upset about a change that will start in September.
District officials have voted to shift the bell schedule so that all schools would start and end fifteen minutes later. The idea is to make sure students are not going to school too early -- before 7:30 in the morning.
However, some parents say their children are going come home too late.
"I understand the reason for not starting school before 7:30," said Kelly Schmidt. "It makes perfect sense to me, but I think what they failed to understand is they just put it on the back end."
One of Schmidt's children goes to Deportola Middle School, which would start school at 9:22 a.m. and end at 4:05 next year. She also has a child who goes to Tierrasanta Elementary School, which would begin its day at 7:55 and end at 2:15 p.m. She said -- on top of the two-hour time difference -- that the extra 15 minutes would be an additional disruption and unfair to students.
"It's just too late for kids to be in school," Schmidt said. "Any kids who have extracurricular activities would have a hard time getting there. Classes that start at 4, they would miss, and doctor's or dentist's appointments: You can't schedule after 4:05."
Numerous parents have signed a petition and are vowing to be at the school board's meeting on June 23, when the district will revisit the issue.
