Parents Express Concerns With New Jenks School Start Times

New start times at Jenks Public Schools has some parents upset.

Monday night, the school board announced the decision, which has been in the works since last fall to help alleviate overcrowded buses.

Parents and students in Jenks voiced their concerns about the new start times for the next school year on Facebook. Many are upset that the new start times will affect extracurricular activities and after-school jobs.

Jenks intermediate students will go from 7:45 a.m. to 2:35 p.m.; elementary students will go from 8:30 a.m. to 3:10 p.m.; and the times causing the most concern are for high school and middle school students, which will run from 9:15 a.m. to 3:55 p.m.

5/1/2017 Related Story: Jenks Public Schools Announces New Start Times

“The board took this very seriously, and when they finally came to the decision it was hard, it was difficult,” said Chief Information Officer Bonnie Rogers.

Difficult but necessary, Rogers said, because of the decrease in state funding and the increase in students.

“Really the only fiscally responsible way to solve that problem with overcrowding on buses was to change to a three-tier start times schedule,” she said. “If we wanted to keep it in the two-tier system that we have now, it would have cost about $1 million point 3 million dollars…something would have had to go.

Parent Adrian Laken sat on the committee that came up with the plan.

“There's pros and cons, but the pros just outweighed the cons,” Lakin said.

She said the health benefits for students is what helped make up her mind about the change.

“I think it's a great compromise between all of the other options,” she said.

Some parents and students don't agree and are worried about their jobs, extracurricular activities and even just getting kids to school, and they are making it known.

Jenks Public Schools said the start times will go into effect at the start of the new school year.