Students at Prior Lake High School will head to class nearly an hour later in the morning starting this fall, and younger kids in town will have altered school days, too.
The changes flow from a new bus schedule approved Monday night by the Prior Lake-Savage school board.
The district came up with new school schedules because it's opening a new elementary school, Redtail Ridge, and keeping bus routes the same would have been more expensive than changing them, according to district officials.
The board also took the opportunity to let older students sleep in, a move that the Minnesota Medical Association has urged high schools to consider because of research showing that teenagers naturally get tired later at night and wake up later in the morning.
The board chose between two possible schedules Monday night, rejecting an alternative that was drafted after many families complained that the new plan would send parochial and middle school students to class too early. But more than half of the 365 staff members and parents who gave the district feedback on the two plans liked the first option, which the board approved unanimously. A quarter preferred the second option, and 19 percent did not favor either, according to the district.
The new plan calls for starting Twin Oaks and Hidden Oaks middle schools earliest, at 7:20 a.m., followed shortly by parochial schools for which the district provides busing. Prior Lake High School will start at 8:05 a.m. instead of the current 7:15 a.m., and classes will run until 3 p.m. Most elementary schools in the district will run from either 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. or 9:20 a.m. to 3:50 p.m.
SARAH LEMAGIE
