NORFOLK, Va. — The Norfolk Public School board on Wednesday night will consider delaying the school's schedule change.
In February 2019, the school board approved reordering the schools' start and dismissal times for the 2020-21 school year. It would involve reordering the school level start and dismissal times this way: elementary schools first, middle schools second and high schools last. Currently, the order is high schools, elementary schools and middle schools.
The board on Wednesday night is considering delaying the time changes for a year. A spokesperson for the school said a few factors for this change include needing capital improvements to athletic field, specifically the installation of lighting to address the reality of practices and games having to be scheduled in evening hours.
"Those capital improvements have an estimated cost of $3.7 million which has proved challenging as the school system has other pressing maintenance needs as well," Kathleen O'Hara said in an email to 13News Now. "In addition, there is a need to do more community engagement about the impending changes as they have the potential to have a great deal of impact on families in areas such as child care, after school activities, student work schedules after school, and parents work schedules as well."
