Dearborn Plans New Start Times As Face-To-Face Learning Returns

DEARBORN, MI — Dearborn Public Schools announced new school start times for fall on Tuesday as the district prepared to return students to in-person learning.

The district said that classes at Fordson, Dearborn High and Edsel Ford high schools and STEM Middle School will start at 7:50 a.m. and run until 2:45 p.m., with half days ending at 10:55 a.m. The first bell allowing students into the building will be at 7:40 a.m.

Middle schools and kindergarten to 8th-grade schools will start at 8:25 a.m. and go until 3:20 p.m., with half days ending at 11:30 a.m., including Lowrey School, McCollough Elementary, Salina Elementary and Salina Intermediate, the district said. The first bell allowing middle school students into the building will be at 8:15 a.m.

Elementary schools will start at 9 a.m. and end at 3:55 p.m., with half days ending at 12:05 p.m., according to the district. The first bell allowing students into the building will be at 8:55 a.m.

For other high schools and high school programs — all programs at Henry Ford Early College; Michael Berry Career Center; Magnet High School; and the Dearborn Center for Math, Science and Technology will run from 8:05 a.m. to 2:25 p.m. each day with half days ending at 10:45 a.m.

Tentative plans for the new Dearborn Public Schools Virtual K-12 call for each grade to follow the schedule for that building level. Staffing for the program is still being worked out, which could impact the schedule, officials said.

For the 2020-21 school year, the district said it adopted shorter school days while students continued learning at least partially online. The shorter days also meant later start times for middle and high school students. Next year’s new start and end times are 20 to 30 minutes later at each grade level compared to the schedule before the pandemic, the district said.

“For years, we have been looking at ways to move high school start times later because research shows teens learn better later in the day,” Superintendent Glenn Maleyko said. “Returning from the hybrid schedule gave us a perfect opportunity to reset class times to hopefully better meet the needs of all students and families.”

District bus times also will be altered. Each of the district’s buses typically run three routes in the morning — one each for elementary, middle and high school. Start times at the buildings then need to be separated enough to complete bus runs for each grade level, officials said.

Overlapping bus route times would add significant costs for the district by requiring more buses and drivers, officials said.

“We are truly looking forward to having our students back in our classrooms every day for the coming school year,” Maleyko said.