ST. LANDRY PARISH (La.) – With the school year quickly approaching, St. Landry Parish School Board has finalized their new school times and bus routes for the 2016-2017 school year.
The parish has adopted a tier system where elementary and junior high students will arrive at school later than high school students.
Patrick Jenkins, superintendent of St. Landry Parish School Board said, “We had elementary kids that were on campus at some points at about 6:30 in the morning, and I just think that that was not effective for students at the age of four and five years of age.”
With this new system drop off for elementary students will begin at 7:30 and class will begin at 8.
“We wanted to be able to make it where those children were in a safe environment, not that they weren’t safe before but in an environment where they can get more sleep and be more productive during the school day,” said Jenkins.
These new travel schedules separate age groups which Jenkins says will hopefully eliminate problems with bullying.
“The new schedule and also bus routes we had opportunities to separate the high school age kids with the elementary age so we made it more age-appropriate. In addition to that the last factor which we always look at last. It also has financial savings to the district as well. With all of those changes we are still able to be good stewards of the funding that the district, the people of this parish has provided to us,” said Jenkins.
For a full list of all school time changes, you can visit the St. Landry Parish website.