Laval parents say 7:45 a.m. is too early for school to start

Parents in Laval say 7:45 a.m. is just too early to start school.

Of the 8,300 parents who responded to a survey put out by the parents committee at the Commission Scolaire de Laval, 75 per cent said they would prefer a later school start time.

Parents say the early start time leads to crunched routines and tired kids.

"I have to get my son up at 6:30 a.m., so he has to go to bed around 7 p.m.," said one respondent. "I don't finish work until 5 p.m., so with dinner, homework and bedtime, it's really short."

Another respondent said she has to wake her two teenagers at 5:45 a.m. in order for them to catch their bus on time.

"My kids are at the end of their rope," wrote another parent.

Sylvain Martel, the president of the parents' committee, proposed the survey because he thinks parents, like teachers, should be consulted on decisions about scheduling.

"It not only concerns their kids at school, it's their kids at home also," said Martel.

One in three elementary schools and one in five high schools in the Laval board begin classes at 7:45 a.m., whereas most of the parents who responded to the survey said they'd prefer school to start around 8:15 a.m.

'It would cost us a million dollars'

Blame busing schedules: School start times at the Laval board are staggered so that the school board's fleet of school buses can make three trips, saving money.

"If all students started school at 8 a.m., it would cost us a million dollars," said the chairwoman of the school board, Louise Lortie. "We would have to increase our fleet of buses."

Lortie said faced with government cuts to education spending, the board chose to save money on bus contracts in order to preserve more classroom services.

However, Martel said the board wouldn't need to toss out the staggered system.

"If you take the whole thing and shift it a little later on, from what I understand it would not cost any more," he said.

'On such a subject, you cannot have consensus'

Though a majority of parents say they would prefer a later start time, others responded with a preference for an earlier start, which works better with their own work schedules.

"In many cases, students arrive at daycare at 7 a.m. because their parents work early," said Lortie.

Martel said he knows a consensus on the issue is not possible.

"I don't think any decisions are going to be made today," said Martel, "but I think we made the point that parents in Laval want to be involved in decisions that concern them."

The school board has agreed to meet with a group of parents, including Martel, to discuss the issue further.