The McKinney ISD board approved new start times for its campuses during a Jan. 21 meeting.

The details

The schools times for the 2025-26 school year are now:

• Elementary schools: 8:10 a.m.-3:20 p.m.
• Middle schools: 8:50 a.m.-4 p.m.
• High schools: 7:20 a.m.-2:40 p.m.

MISD staff researched school start and end times in other districts and obtained feedback from MISD high school students, parents and staff, according to the board agenda.

The new start times were made to meet the needs of students, staff, parents and transportation services, according to the agenda.

Zooming out

Two options were created for potential new start times that were then brought to students and staff, said Shelly Spaulding, MISD’s assistant superintendent of public relations and communications, during the Jan. 21 meeting. Most preferred option one, which was approved by the board. This option only required minor adjustments opposed to option two, which overhauled the start times.

The option approved by the board also added 10 minutes to the start day for high school students. This will allow students and staff to have early release days during final exams, Spaulding said.

The survey, which supported the approval, showed:

• 85.9% of the 2,894 students who responded preferred option 1
• 66% of the 5,505 parents who responded preferred option 1
• 63.5% of the 1,484 staff who responded preferred option 1

Option two, which was not selected, included:

• Elementary schools: 8:40 a.m.-4 p.m.
• Middle schools: 8:10 a.m.-3:20 p.m.
• High schools: 7:30 a.m.-2:40 p.m.

Looking back

The start times were previously:

• Elementary school: 8 a.m.-3:10 p.m.
• Middle schools: 8:45 a.m.-3:55 p.m.
• High schools: 7:30 a.m.-2:40 p.m.