Port Charlotte schools debate start times; students and parents divided

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (WINK) — Charlotte County students may soon see changes to their school start times. The state proposed a shift that would see middle and high schools starting later, while elementary schools would begin earlier. However, opinions among parents, students, and school leaders are divided.

Port Charlotte High School senior Michael Paddock shared his thoughts on the early start times.

"I don't want to wake up. I wake up, I take my shower, I brush my teeth, you know, do everything I have to do, and then I lay back down," said Paddock.

Paddock currently starts his day at 5:30 a.m.

"I wake up at 5:30 in the morning every single day, which is horribly early, because the bus gets at my stop at 620 like seven-ish," said Paddock. "I want to just go lay back down and fall asleep in my bed."

The proposed change would move high school start times from 7:10 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.

"8:30 is a lot more reasonable, because if you think you got to go to bed at 10, like 9-10, o'clock to get a full sleep," said Paddock.

Before any changes take place, Charlotte County Public Schools held a workshop to discuss the proposal with stakeholders.

"We want to go through the process of how we included stakeholders, parents, schools, into this process," said a representative from the workshop.

Each principal met with School Advisory Councils to gather input.

"All parents are able to attend and give input," said the representative. "Only members of SAC who have been deemed members through the process can vote on whether they want the current start stop times or they want to change to the new proposed serve stop times."

The votes indicated that most schools prefer to keep the current schedule.

"Then the votes were taken, and we got the results from the votes. They were 100% to keep the times, except one school was a tie and another school did not have a quorum," said the representative.

Parent Tom Wingard supports maintaining the current schedule.

"You know, they like their schedule. They like getting out early. So in turn, everybody starts earlier to get out earlier. So that's what makes sense to me," said Wingard.

Paddock remains skeptical about any change happening.

"Unfortunately, I do not think that the policies are going to change. I think that we're going to remain starting at 7:10," said Paddock.

The district planned to send its findings to the state and confirm during a school board meeting at 5:30 p.m. that the start times will not change.