With recent legislation affecting school start-times across the state, the Morongo Unified School District has issued an explanation regarding the decision for start times to remain unchanged in the district due to its rural designation.
California Senate Bill 328, otherwise known as the “late school start time bill,” will soon take effect for many California Schools; however, all start times within Morongo Unified School District will remain unchanged. The Senate Bill requires middle and high schools to begin no earlier than 8:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. respectively. However, the Bill allows for rural exemptions primarily due to long distance bus rides and the extended timeframes associated with rural areas. Currently, MUSD is among the school districts in the state that continues to offer transportation to its general education student population, which is not the case for the majority of students throughout the state.
In order for the district to meet the requirements of SB328, start times for all elementary schools would need to be either much earlier or much later. Elementary-age students would then be required to wait for busses either much earlier in the morning or after school in the dark.
After much discussion at the April 19 meeting of the Board of Education, the Board acknowledged MUSD’s rural designation, noting that changing start times would conflict with many parents’ work schedules and childcare arrangements. Therefore, the district is keeping all school start times unchanged from previous years, but will continue to reevaluate the impact and feasibility of changing school start times in the future.
Reporting for Z107.7, this is Chris Fleischman.
