By Mike Terry - Collinsville Hearld
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The school day will take between 15 and 20 minutes longer for most Triad students this year, after the school board unanimously approved changes to the 2008-2009 daily schedule on Monday night.
District officials have been looking to increase the number of "instructional minutes" for students for quite some time, but have been unable to, mostly because of busing conflicts. With Troy consolidating from three to two elementary schools in the fall, officials decided to seize the opportunity to finally make those changes.
"The timing seemed right to adjust school hours," said Superintendent Leigh Lewis.For the last several years, all of Triad's elementary buildings started at 8:50 a.m. and all of them concluded the day at 3 p.m., with the exception of the kindergarten and first-graders at C.A. Henning, who finished at 2:25 p.m.
Starting in the fall, all four of Triad's elementary buildings (Henning, Silver Creek, St. Jacob and Marine) will be on the same schedule, running from 8:40 a.m. to 3:05 p.m.
In addition, students at Triad Middle School will see another 20 minutes tacked on to their day. Classes will continue to start at 7:45 a.m., but will now end at 2:40 p.m. instead of 2:20 p.m.
There will be no changes to the Triad High School schedule.
Lewis said the district needed to increase its instructional minutes in order to apply for certain grants. Before moving ahead with the plan, officials also took time to survey staff members and meet with busing representatives on whether the adjustments were doable.
"It's exciting to see all the elementary schools on the same schedule," added school board Vice President Rob Luttrell.
During Monday's meeting, the school board also voted unanimously to increase cafeteria prices for the 2008-2009 year. The cost for students will go up a total of 15 cents and will now be as follows:
- Elementary schools: $1.10 for breakfast and $1.90 for lunch;
- Middle and high schools: $1.20 for breakfast and $2.00 for lunch.
For adults, the price of breakfast will also jump 15 cents up to $1.60 and will jump 25 cents for lunch up to $2.50.
Representatives from Sodexho, the district's food provider, say this will be the first increase in food prices that Triad has seen since the 2004-2005 school year. But with rising costs for things like milk and transportation, it was only a matter of time before it had to be done again.
"We try not to charge kids more than we have to," said Business Manager Ken Miller.
A sheet distributed to board members showed Triad's cafeteria prices comparable to districts like Collinsville, Belleville and Highland. |
