Wednesday late start is here to stay, at least for the next two years

After weeks of debate, the Cascade School Board has finally decided on late starts. At the May 23 Cascade School Board meeting, the board voted 5-1 to keep late starts on Wednesdays. 

Board member Brenda Biebesheimer campaigned for a change, but ultimately was voted down. Prior to the vote, each board member recounted their visits with the public on this issue. 

“I put out feelers and talked to a lot of people. I had calls at home. I had emails. I said late starts are here to stay, would you rather have Wednesday or Monday? How about early release Friday? I heard from 30 people. Six liked Wednesday and the rest wanted to change,” Biebesheimer said. 

Board member Jennifer Pickel said the people she talked to were all over the map on this issue, depending on the age of the student. People with high school kids liked Wednesdays, she said. 

Board member Cindy Puckett said she had six responses, all via email. Most of them liked Wednesday late starts. 

“I think I had about 15 responses. A huge percentage said, the staff and administrators, I trust them to make good calls. I had one say they prefer Monday. The interesting thing I gathered, there was a consistent theme of consistency,” said Board President Carrie Sorensen. “While I would love to do every Wednesday. We do the first two Wednesday unless a holiday or early release. Families really weren’t thinking about that. The biggest recommendation was keeping the first two Wednesdays.”

Regardless of the day, they just want it to be consistent, said Board member Kristen Wood. Most of the information she received was for Wednesdays. 

Superintendent Bill Motsenbocker said when he first worked with the administrative team, a lot of research had been done on Wednesday late starts. Families have made arrangements for childcare on Wednesdays, so it seemed logical to stay with that. 

“There is the one theme of consistency, so what we’re going to try ...we still suggest moving the late starts in May due to testing. We would like to do the first two Wednesday school days of each month. If there was a holiday on Friday or Monday, we’ve tended to not have a late start,” Motsenbocker said. “But to keep things consistent, we will do the first two Wednesday school days. If there is no school on the first Wednesday, like in April, it would be on the second and third Wednesdays. That is a change we thought would be best. We’re going to make a recommendation to go from 90 minutes to two hours.”

Cascade High School Principal Elia Ala’ilima Daley asked if there would be late starts in September. Motsenbocker said they have not done late starts in September, but if the high school would like to add September, they could do that. 

“If you are going to start school and say the first two Wednesdays of every month, you should start it right off the bat. It would be less confusing,” Wood said. 

So it was decided to have two hour late starts on the first two Wednesday school days of the month, September through April. All board members voted for that, except for Biebesheimer. 

Conferences

It seems like a decision on school conferences is coming soon. Motsenbocker said every school will do fall conferences. 

“As soon as we have our next TLC (Teaching and Learning Council) meeting, I’ll know exactly the other schools plans for the spring conferences. The options we’ve given each of the schools, they can choose conferences that work for them or they can run school,” Motsenbocker said. “My prediction will be that K-5 will probably do conferences. The high school would probably like to have the two instruction days back. The middle school, I’m not sure.”

Late starts and conferences will be set for the next two years.  

Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.