Starting this Kanawha County School year 2018/2019 we were all informed that our children would go to school at different times.

New times are as follows: Elementary kids must be at school by 7:30am, Middle school by 8:00am and High school by 8:30am. This impacts thousands of families throughout our county I feel that we as parents should have had some input into this.  Board president Jim Crawford said the change was a central office decision and the board did not have to vote on it.

Elementary school kids have to be at school now as early as 7:15, at the bus stop at 6:30am, when it will be dark, and out of school as early as 1:15.  It is much harder to stagger work schedules around this.  This means more children will be in after school care than ever before and will need an earlier bed time when they arrive home, thereby decreasing family time.

High school kids start school later but some of the school times for them don't end until 4:00pm.  How are these kids supposed to have time for extracurricular activities, family time, part-time jobs, socializing or any kind of home life.  They should not be in school past at least 3:15pm.  Riverside High School is one example of this.  

My high school children do not get to sleep in at all because last year I took them to school and now I can't because of the time change.  So now they must get up earlier just to ride the bus. This is making my kids hate school even more than before.  They feel like there whole day is spent at school with little time after school for anything else. 

Please ask that Superintendent Ron Duerring change this back to the old times for the 2019/2020 school year. Such radical changes to a family and community schedule should be made with care and caution and should have parental input from everyone.  We are asking that changes like this be made based on community input and not just what a few board members think is best for everyone.