WASHINGTON — For Patricia O’Neill, it’s New Year’s Day.
The president of the Montgomery County Board of Education, O’Neill wished everyone “Happy New Year!” during an interview with WTOP on Monday morning, the first day of classes for 2015-2016.
The big change for the new year involves school start times. High school and middle school classes will start 20 minutes later than previously; elementary school days will start 10 minutes later and end 20 minutes later. The high school day now runs from 7:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; middle schools, 8:15 a.m. to 3 p.m.; elementary schools in Tier 1, from 9 a.m. to 3:25 p.m., and elementary schools in Tier 2, from 9:25 a.m. to 3:50 p.m.
“We’re very excited about this,” O’Neill says, adding that it has to do with reports that later start times fit better with kids’ sleep schedules.
“We wish we could have done more to reach the 8:30 mark recommended by the Centers for Disease Control, but this is a good first step.”
The school system also is extending its outreach to Spanish-speaking parents, O’Neill says, offering a Spanish-language app and a Spanish-language website.
“Our population is increasingly diverse,” O’Neill says, “and we want to communicate as much as we can with our parents.”
Montgomery County made national news last school year by removing the religious names from certain holidays, and O’Neill says the board is working on a new calendar policy that reflects those changes and more.
“We’re very proud of our work on our calendar policy. We’ve worked closely with the faith community this year.”
She says the school system recently published a guide to religious diversity available to all parents in multiple languages.
The school system’s website includes a section that shows all the county’s defined “Days of Commemoration,” which O’Neill describes as “a more inclusive commemoration calendar of many, many, many religious holidays.”
She says the board will take tentative action on a new calendar Sept. 8.
