All Center Grove schools changed their school hours for the 2025-2026 school year. I do not think the Greenwood administration should do the same.
Center Grove High School changed their school hours to be from 8:05 a.m. to 3 p.m. The time difference only shifts 15 minutes, but why are these 15 minutes so crucial? Center Grove claims the reason for the switch is due to teenagers needing more sleep, but how is 15 minutes going to benefit these teens enough to make them more productive during the day?
Not only did the high school switch, but the middle and elementary schools also changed. The elementary school times will change to 9:20 a.m. to 3:55 p.m. These times are so inconvenient for parents/guardians who have to drop off their children or parents/guardians who take their kids to the bus. Statistics show that the average adult arrives to work between 7:45 and 8:00 AM. Arriving to work later can impact the success of many parents/guardians and should have been taken into consideration during the vote.
The middle school’s time was changed to 8 a.m. to 2:50 p.m. It makes no sense that the middle schoolers are in school for longer than the high schoolers. In my opinion, middle school is just a few transition years between elementary and high school where kids learn to mature, open lockers, and switch classes. There were a few useful classes I took in middle school, but none that were more important than my current and past high school classes. If anything, high schoolers should be in school longer than middle schoolers because the classes in high school are harder than middle school and typically high schoolers can utilize their time more productively than middle schoolers.
A Center Grove middle school teacher was also concerned about the time change, saying if they are going to change it, change it to a longer time to avoid having to switch in the future.
If GHS changed their times to the CGHS schedule, I feel as if students would not like it and they would be aggravated with the switch. It is nice getting out of school at 2:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. on Wednesdays. It makes it feel like students can still have a life outside of school and have time to do activities, sports, work, and homework. Getting out of school later can make the school day feel longer, and this can impact how proactive students are during the day and the amount of work they get done efficiently.
While students are supposed to be the main focus of the time change, teachers need to be heard as well. Most teachers are husbands, wives, mothers, and fathers; what about their childcare needs? The times have not changed in a while, and the teachers and their children already have their needs for childcare taken care of. Finding new childcare or switching can be impactful on the teachers and the children.
Greenwood Community School Corporation already has a bus driver shortage. By changing the times, it would impact routes and also drivers if they have other jobs. Why risk losing more drivers over 15 minutes.
If GHS were to switch times, students would be upset and so would the teachers. Let’s keep the peace and stick with what we have now to avoid conflict in the future.