BATON ROUGE — More East Baton Rouge Parish School District campuses could start class later following a pilot program shifting start times at a limited number of schools that was implemented in August.

At its Thursday night Committee of the Whole meeting, the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board unanimously voted to advance a policy allowing Superintendent LaMont Cole to "adjust school start and dismissal times for district-operated schools as needed over the next three years." 

"We firmly believe this is better for our adolescents. We believe this will help our students, therefore our school district," Cole said. 

The six schools included for the pilot program were: Capitol Elementary, Capitol High, Glen Oaks High, Glen Oaks Park Elementary, Melrose Elementary and Merrydale Elementary.

The middle and high schools will start later at 8:50 a.m. and end at 4:05 p.m., while the elementary schools would start earlier at 8 a.m. and end at 3:15 p.m.

The board said that transportation challenges, early bus pick-up times and efficiency concerns led to the consideration of the policy change that would give Cole's office flexibility to realign school start and dismissal times in a way that they say better supports all parties, including students, staff and families. 

"Rather than approving specific times for each phase, this request seeks authorization for the Superintendent and administration to modify school start and dismissal schedules when operationally necessary while maintaining a consistent 435-minute school day across the district," a memorandum on the policy shift said. 

Cole noted that there are still kinks to work out for the later start times, including working out a system to ensure as minimal use of transfer buses as possible. 

The proposal was met with enthusiasm from students who provided public comment, with some citing medical studies exploring the benefits of later start times and longer hours of sleep. 

Candida Belona-Sims, a district teacher and member of the East Baton Rouge Parish Association of Educators, told the board that district leadership needs to take teachers' perspectives into account when making decisions about changing start times. 

"When you're thinking about these start times, [ask] how will this affect after-school tutoring? How will this affect Back on Track? Have you also considered how this will affect other programs that are going on? Also, how will this affect sports?" Belona-Sims said. "People are saying yes to these start times, but there are so many other factors and so many other things you have to take into consideration."

Cole said that how this will affect teachers and other community members is at the front of his mind as these discussions continue. 

"There are adjustments that have to be made, but I have to weigh what research tells us, what the data tells us, what the experience of our students tells us about how later start times will affect their lives," Cole said. 

The policy will be formally voted on at the March 19 board meeting.

A meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. on March 17 at Belaire High School, where public opinion will be gauged as to the interest and need for later start times at schools in the Belaire area. 

If the district receives positive feedback on the change, Cole said that the change could be implemented in the fall.

A spokesperson for the district noted that no additional start times have formally been changed yet, but said the district is eying a few schools to expand the start time change to, with the new authority that will be granted to Cole.