St. Paul Schools Superintendent Valeria Silva recommended to the school board Tuesday that it set aside a proposal to push back high school start times and instead keep current schedules in place for 2015-16.
The idea did not sit well with several members, however, raising the potential for spirited debate at the board's meeting next week.
Board Member Jean O'Connell, citing research that has shown how high-schoolers thrive academically with later school starts, said she was frustrated by a focus on busing implications and wondered aloud "why the achievement issue is not front and center."
The discussion came at a committee meeting during which board members heard a report advising the district to delay any shift in high school start times to 2016-17 at the earliest.
The recommendation would eliminate, for the 2015-16 school year, the potential of many elementary school students having to begin their day one to two hours earlier, at 7:30 a.m., and give the district more time to review potential busing options with Metro Transit, school board members were told.
The elementary school changes have been the controversial flip side to the district's effort to align school start times with teenage body rhythms by having high school and middle school students start their day at 8:30 a.m. instead of 7:30 a.m.
But St. Paul was determined to keep transportation costs from rising, and that would require shifting a group of elementary students into the 7:30 a.m. slot.
Board Member Anne Carroll suggested Tuesday that the board could try to come up with the $8 million to $10 million needed for a solution to keep both the high school and elementary camps happy.
