Ellie Spinosa
Staff Writer

Do you dread your alarm in the morning? The aggravating sound ruining your peaceful sleep. Five more minutes, you tell yourself. Now, imagine you could get fifteen more minutes and not be in a rush. That might be the case as a change in school start time for the upcoming 2025-26 school year has been up in the air. 

“The school board has convened a committee to study the bell schedule across the whole district,” School Board Member Leah Crowley said.

The committee has been trying to come up with potential options to change school times. 

The Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools (WS/FCS) Instagram page posted the potential times, with elementary school starting first at 7:25 AM, then middle school at 8:35 AM, followed by high school at 9:10 AM. The times were based on a Bell Schedule Survey that they conducted. 

Next, they are going to ask for opinions from teachers, students, and families about the new proposed schedule.  

This is their first run at it. Nothing is confirmed and no decisions have been made. 

“Nothing would happen before the 2025-2026 school year,” Crowley said. “It just needs five votes from the School Board to pass it and make it happen out of nine members.” 

WS/FCS proposed the change for a few reasons. One of which is to help with bus transportation. Because of the lack of bus drivers, spreading out school start times would give more time for bus drivers to get more students to school on time. 

Concerns come with the proposed schedule change as well. High schools would get out at 3:55, which is not efficient for after-school activities.

“It would make it harder for me to get to practice in the afternoons,” sophomore Cam Robertson said.

Fraizer Jones is a freshman field hockey player. Even though she would be affected by the later start time for practice, she recognizes the benefits of the potential change for students across the board. 

“I think that the spread of the start times would help with buses,” freshman Frazier Jones said.

While some think it will be beneficial for transportation, Crowley is not convinced it will. 

“I am not convinced it is what’s best for students, and I am not convinced it will help us with the issues [like transportation], it says it’s going to help with,” Crowley said. 

Crowley also has a big concern about elementary school starting so early. If elementary students are starting at 7:25 am and ending at 1:30 pm then that means they would be in some kind of daycare or afterschool care program for at least four hours if their parents have a full-time job. 

An early start time could mean kids waiting for the bus at 6:15 AM, which means they would have to get up at 5:30 AM.

“When you look at what the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends for sleep, it’s ten to twelve hours, we’re not putting kids to bed at 05:00 PM or 06:00 PM…There’s this desire to streamline things and while that looks neat on paper to only have four different times, sometimes the reality on the school level needs to supersede what looks neat on a paper,” Crowley said. 

The idea is still up in the air- so go to WS/FCS’s Instagram page and give your feedback on what you think is best.