With mounting budget concerns facing Chicago Public Schools, officials have announced changes in bell schedules for more than 75 schools for the 2015-16 school year.
About 60 high schools and 17 elementary schools will see new schedules, CPS spokesperson Emily Bittner confirmed Friday.
Most high school start times will switch to 9 a.m. and elementary schools will move to 7:30 or 7:45 a.m.
The change was announced July 1 as part of a $200 million reduction in spending. "While this will not cut into instruction time, schools will start and end an average of 45 minutes later, which will reduce transportation costs," CPS stated in a fact sheet at the time.
The time change is expected to save CPS $9.2 million in transportation costs.
It was not immediately clear which schools would be impacted, but CPS said principals at affected schools will alert parents.
Several principals have already started announcing the new start times on social media.
Anna Pavichevich, the principal for Amundsen High School in Lincoln Square, wrote on Facebook that the school’s new hours will be 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.
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Lincoln Park High School’s principal tweeted that the school’s first period will begin at 8:05 a.m. and the eighth period will end at 3:23 p.m. Second period at the school will start at 9 a.m. and end with ninth period at 4:18 p.m. On Thursdays, the first period begins at 9 a.m. and eighth period ends at 3:12 p.m. and the second period begins at 9:47 a.m., with ninth period ending at 3:59 p.m.
The principal for Brooks College Prep Academy, D’Andre Weaver, tweeted the school’s new schedule will run from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. He added this was “no joke” and those with concerns should meet with the CPS Board of Education because “Mr. Weaver doesn’t control the world.”
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday announced Forrest Claypool as the new CEO of CPS.
