x
Breaking News
More () »

SURVEY: Most respondents want Virginia Beach City Public Schools start times to stay the same

Results of a survey by VBCPS show more than 76.1% of those who took it want schools to maintain their current schedules.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Virginia Beach City Public Schools has been considering shifting school start times.

VBCPS wants to push back the start times to help with attendance and grades and to give students more time to sleep.

Officials came up with four options for people to choose from in a survey in May.

The first option has Elementary A Schools starting at 7:30 a.m. and ending at 2:00 p.m., Elementary B Schools starting at 8:00 a.m. and ending at 2:30 p.m., Middle Schools starting at 8:45 a.m. and ending at 3:15 p.m. and High Schools starting at 9:25 a.m. and ending at 4:15 p.m.

Another option has Elementary A Schools starting at 7:45 a.m. and ending at 2:15 p.m., Elementary B Schools starting at 8:15 a.m. and ending at 2:45 p.m., Middle Schools starting at 9:00 a.m. and ending at 3:30 p.m. and High Schools starting at 9:40 a.m. and ending at 4:30 p.m.

A third option has Middle schools starting at 7:30 a.m. and ending at 2:00 p.m., Elementary A Schools starting at 8:05 a.m. and ending at 2:35 p.m., Elementary B Schools starting at 8:40 a.m. and ending at 3:10 p.m. and High Schools starting at 9:20 a.m. and ending at 4:10 p.m.

The final option has High Schools starting at 8:00 a.m. and ending at 2:50 p.m., Elementary A Schools starting at 8:50 a.m. and ending at 3:20 p.m., Elementary B Schools starting at 9:20 a.m. and ending at 3:50 p.m. and Middle Schools starting at 10:10 a.m. and ending at 4:40 p.m.

RELATED: Virginia Beach schools receive 'high volume' of responses to latest school start time survey

RELATED: Virginia Beach School Board responds to opposition of pushing back school start times

Results from the May survey showed most people supporting the first option. 

In a second survey, respondents were asked if they supported the time change. That survey closed Wednesday, November 20 at 11:59 p.m.

More than 24,000 people weighed in on the survey.

How do parents, students, staff and community members feel about the proposed change?

Officials are still going through the results, but the initial results showed that 76.1% of those who responded want to maintain the current schedule.

Credit: 13News Now
According to the survey, 76.1% of respondents want schools to keep their current schedules.

Here's a breakdown of who responded:

Fifty percent of respondents were parents, 27% were students, 17% were employees and 4% were other members of the community.

Credit: 13News Now
Over 50% of respondents were parents while nearly 28% of respondents were students, 17.5% were employees and 4.1% were community members.

Nearly 7,000 students wanted a voice in deciding when their school day would start. More than 6,000 of those respondents were high school students, 568 were middle schoolers and 72 were in elementary school.

Credit: 13News Now
More than 6,000 high school students wanted their voices heard.

The school board is supposed to meet on Tuesday to discuss the results and give their opinions they're set to vote on a change to start times on December 10.

RELATED: Petition against changing VBCPS start times gets over 11K signatures

RELATED: Virginia Beach school officials still considering start time change

If they decide to change the start times, even though most people don't want it, the change would go into effect for the 2020-2021 school year.

Before You Leave, Check This Out