According to Clear Creek ISD surveys sent to district employees and families, high schoolers want later school start times, and families of other grade levels and district employees do not.

Since September, the CCISD School Start Time Committee has been considering changing school start times. In CCISD, elementary schools start at 7:55 a.m., intermediate schools start at 8:40 a.m., and high schools start at 7:10 a.m. Modern research shows high school students benefit from starting school as late as 8:30 a.m., officials have said.

The district over the last few weeks released a survey to gauge the community’s thoughts on changing start times. District officials unveiled survey results at a committee meeting Oct. 29.

After considering the survey results, the committee did not come to a consensus on what school start times should be recommended to the board.

Of the 2,255 high school families that took the survey, 50.38% want the high school start time to change. Of that portion, 98% want the start time later. About 40.58% of high school families do not want the high school start time to change, and 9.05% do not know, according to survey data.

Of all district families, including those of elementary and intermediate students, only 41.09% want school start times to change. Another 45.16% do not want the time to change, and 13.75% do not know, according to survey results.

District employees desire even less for school start times to change. About 33.55% want to change start times, 45.34% do not and 21.11% do not know, according to the results.

On Oct. 22, the committee unveiled it was considering two recommendations: keeping school start times the same and a model that would, among other changes, push the high school start time back 20 minutes to 7:30 a.m. Over a dozen residents spoke, all in favor of later start times for high schoolers.

On Oct. 29, seven members voted in favor of starting high school at 8:30 a.m., eight voted for starting at 7:30 a.m., and 11 voted in favor of keeping start times the same. All the information and opinions the committee gathered will be presented in a report to the CCISD board of trustees Nov. 11. The board will consider and possibly vote on changing start times at its Nov. 18 meeting.