300 mulls late start for middle schools

The Community Unit District 300 school board will consider a proposal to implement a number of late start days for middle school students beginning in the fall.

Administrators and middle school principals say the later start will provide teachers with extra professional development and planning time to get students ready for the high school level and beyond.

Under the proposal, most middle schools will start at 10:10 a.m. on the designated late start days. The school board has yet to approve the plan and administrators said they would meet during the summer to finalize schedules.

Kara Vicente, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning for middle schools, said the district is considering eight late start days a year.

“We are really focusing on trying to work on some of the goals initiated by the state like the common core standards and college readiness,” Vicente said. “This will give us the opportunity to increase alignment with high schools.”

A late start day will allow middle school staffers to meet with high school divisional leaders to discuss the current curriculum.

The district’s three high schools implemented late start days and have seen considerable success, Vicente said.

Peggy Thurow, principal at Algonquin Middle School, said the plan will put all of the district’s middle schools on the same path.

“The emphasis now is to make students really college ready before they get to high school,” Thurow said. “We are looking at what can we do in middle school to make sure we are using our best practices in the core classes. So many new initiatives come on board, but we want to focus on the ones that make a difference.”

Thurow said the goal is to make the core classes more rigorous to prepare students for college and the workplace.