The Charlottesville School Board last week adjusted the hours and fees for the CLASS program, which provides child care before and after school.
“One of our hopes in shifting the schedule around is that parents would need less before care, even if they need more after care,” Schools spokeswoman Beth Cheuk said.
Based on research stating that adolescents benefit from more sleep both developmentally and academically, the School Board last spring voted to change school start times throughout the division.
While the Board voted unanimously for the change, they also recognized the move would impact before- and after-school programs.
At the elementary schools, CLASS will now run each day from 7:30 a.m. to 8 a.m., and 2:30 to 5 p.m. Extended care will also run until 6 p.m.
At Walker Upper Elementary, CLASS will run each morning from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., and from 3:15 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on days when the EDGE program does not run. Extended care will run until 6 p.m.
On afternoons when EDGE, another after school program, does run at Walker, CLASS will operate from 4:15 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and extended care will run until 6 p.m.
Superintendent Rosa Atkins said the new fees will hold families as harmless as possible.
The elementary school day will now run from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., the upper elementary and middle school days from 8:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. and the high school day from 9:05 a.m. to 3:50 p.m.
