JCPS wants to keep start times the same next year, the email shows

Top Jefferson County Public Schools officials won’t recommend changes to school start times for next year, despite that a promise the board made in May to consider a plan that better adapts to the sleep patterns of children and young people.

According to an email to JCPS principals from JCPS Chief of Schools Robert Moore obtained by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, JCPS’ operations department drew up a plan to move elementary schools to earlier start times, but staff and board members decided not to use it.

One reason: earlier elementary start times would require up to 90 schools to change schedules and “at times, services would be affected,” Moore wrote in the email sent Wednesday afternoon.

“(In) consultation with Operations and our board, we recommend that we make no changes to start times for the 25-26 school year,” Moore wrote.

When the Jefferson County Board of Education adopted JCPS’s current controversial schedule in May, it was only supposed to be for one year.

But Moore said the district has improved service and routing under the existing arrangement, and changing start times again “would require us to completely reroute the entire district for the third year in a row.” Moore also expressed concern that changing start times could throw a wrench in the selection of a routing software provider. he also said Pollio’s impending departure could mean changing start times again in 2026-2027.

JCPS officials further outlined their reasoning in meeting materials for the Nov. 12 school board meeting, sent to Jefferson County Board of Education public portal.

Board members fought to pass the current 3-hour schedule in May after facing fierce opposition from principals and members of the local community over the lack of transparency in the development of the proposal and the unpopular start time at 9:40, which is assigned to many elementary schools.

The plan passed by a 4-3 vote with a caveat proposed by District 3 member James Craig and seconded by District 4 member Joe Marshall “that the administration return to the board no later than December 1, 2024 with a plan to optimize start times for the school year 2025-2026 to meet the board’s goals of early times for elementary schools and later times for middle and high schools.”

District 5 member Linda Duncan, who voted in favor of the proposal in May, told KyCIR Thursday that after speaking with JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio, she felt ready to support his recommendation that the district continue without changes.

“At this point, we don’t want to take any chances to confuse the situation or create any delays,” Duncan said.

The district moved to this year’s 3 o’clock schedule after last year’s computer-designed 9 o’clock schedule failed miserably on the first day of school. The 9 o’clock timetable was part of a plan to address a severe bus driver shortage.

A bus driver shortages and delays throughout last year led the Jefferson County Board of Education to cut back on transportation this year for nearly all magnet students. JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio laid out a plan to bring transportation back to some lower-income magnet students that depended on an agreement with TARC, the city’s transit authority, to loan 70 drivers.

According to JCPS spokeswoman Carolyn Callahan, 54 TARC drivers were on board and ready to drive for JCPS as of Thursday. Pollio previously told KyCIR that the district needed at least 60 TARC drivers to restore any type of magnet transportation.

Pollio had planned to make a proposal to restore magnet transportation in September, but he told KyCIR that the onboarding process was delayed because many TARC drivers were struggling to pass the state tests required for school bus drivers.

Duncan told KyCIR that she would prefer to use TARC drivers to improve time service for non-magnet students before magnet routes are restored.