Early school start time irks parents in Pembina Trails

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This article was published 24/02/2023 (1020 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Parents are warning significant changes to start times will not only upend work schedules and create child-care challenges, but harm the development and well-being of children anticipated to start elementary school 45 minutes earlier next year.

The Pembina Trails School Division plans to adjust start and end times in 17 communities across southwestern Winnipeg to allow bus drivers to service two routes in mornings and afternoons.

Starting in September, roughly half of the affected schools are slated to run between 8:15 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. The others will operate with a 9:15 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. timetable. It will affect approximately 7,000 students.

Anna Drewniak said the blueprint will require her two young children to set their alarms before 7 a.m. — which will inevitably shorten the amount of sleep they get — to arrive for the first bell at 8:05 a.m.

“We’re asking our kids to perform well in school. We’re asking our kids to build positive relationships. We’re asking our kids to avoid mal-adaptive risk-taking behaviours,” said Drewniak, who is a pediatric allergist, nodding to the work of Drs. Erika Cheng and Aaron Carroll.

“All of that needs emotional regulation and executive functioning, and (both) are significantly impacted by and very vulnerable to sleep deprivation.”

She is among dozens of caregivers who have voiced concerns about the fallout of the scheduling adjustments — measures that division leaders argue are necessary to address a chronic shortage of bus drivers.

Drewniak was a co-spokeswoman for Pembina Trails Parents, a newly formed coalition that advocates for timetable updates to be paused, during a public board meeting on Thursday evening.

The group has collected more than 450 signatures via online petition and the majority of the approximately 40 public attendees at this week’s meeting were in solidarity with their cause.

During their presentation, Drewniak and mother Tara Liu spoke about family frustrations regarding the absence of public consultation, financial strains that changes will have, and the possible health impacts.

The duo noted the American Academy of Pediatrics has put out a position statement on the negative impacts of schools starting before 8:30 a.m., in part due to biological changes in sleep associated with puberty.

In the lead up to the meeting, Pembina Trails Parents researched start times across Winnipeg and compiled data from 207 buildings. The coalition found 93 per cent of those city schools begin at 8:30 a.m. or later while less than one per cent start earlier than 8:15 a.m.

“We would be placed as a significant outlier to the norm and arguably, in the wrong direction,” Drewniak said, adding research shows sleep deprivation is linked to attention span and impulsivity-control issues, increases both anxiety and depression, and threatens to interfere with academic performance.

Superintendent Lisa Boles has repeatedly stressed the division’s challenges with recruiting bus drivers this year and indicated this chronic labour issue is not unique to her employer or Winnipeg.

Pembina Trails, one of the fastest-growing districts in Manitoba, forecasts a surge in enrolment that would require an increase of 12 buses to maintain service in 2023-24.

“We’ve been holding (our transportation services) together, barely, this year and next year, the projection is even more dire… We could buy 12 buses, but we couldn’t get 12 more drivers. We can’t even staff the current fleet that we have on the road,” secretary treasurer Nora Wood told parents Thursday.

Liu said the plan creates upheaval for the majority in order to serve a minority of students — approximately 25 per cent of the population — who take the bus to school.

“Many families, regardless of if they bus or not, design their schedules around school start times and end times for their kids,” said the mother, who has a five-year-old and seven-year-old.

Numerous parents have expressed their desire to share alternative solutions because the current scenario is forcing families to scramble, whether it’s to make child-care arrangements, reconsider jobs, or look at other schooling options, she added.

“I hope they really take a hard look and see that this doesn’t work for families,” said Amanda Pacheco, a health-care professional who works night shifts and will not be able to drop her daughter off to school on time because she gets off at 8 a.m.

Pacheco said she’s frustrated parents were not given an opportunity to weigh in before the changes were announced.

Division leaders have ruled out the prospect of offering hiring incentives for drivers or adjusting bussing eligibility, citing contractual obligations and provincial legislation that requires boards to transport elementary-aged children who would have more than 1.6 kilometres to class.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie