Despite large opposition, as of next year the school day will start a full hour later for families at the St. John Fisher Elementary campuses.
The Lester B. Pearson School Board voted overwhelmingly in favour of the school time change in a meeting Monday evening.
Classes for the senior and junior campuses will be starting at 9:05 a.m. and 9:15 a.m.
The end time will also be pushed back, with the day now finishing at 3:45 p.m. for the junior school and 3:35 p.m. for the senior campus.
“This is going to be disruptive for a lot of parents,” Rachel Jolly said as she dropped off her children.
It’s a decision that a number of parents did not want to see come to fruition but one that had to be made, according to school board chair Noel Burke.
“We really took the due diligence, we went back in the drawing board and we feel this is the best solution moving forward and the majority of the stakeholders at the school share that,” Burke said.
St. Thomas High School’s start time remains the same.
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According to the board, the crux of the problem resulting in these changes is the shared bus schedules.
“We the board have worked tirelessly to figure out the best scenario,” Burke said.
Bus routes are shared or twinned with a number of schools, resulting in tight scheduling.
With St. Thomas High School moving to the building occupied by Lindsay Place High School this fall, the board says almost 2,000 students will be converging on the same small area of Pointe-Claire every morning.
Having all the schools start at the same time is “a non-starter,” Burke said.
Traffic would be a major issue as hundreds of vehicles will be stopping and dropping off children in the Valois neighbourhood, Burke said.
As a result of the time change a number of parents said they will have to rely heavily on the schools daycare services.
“Now we will be forced to use the daycare and that is a financial burden that many families didn’t have in the past,” Parent Mark Brownsaid.
Daycare services will be made available starting at 7 a.m. and ending at 6 p.m.
The new school hours will come into effect as of the 2021-22 school year.
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