LIBERTY HILL, Texas —
Liberty Hill ISD students will have to get to school a little bit earlier this year. The middle and high schools are starting five minutes earlier than last year.
Travis Motal, chief of schools for Liberty Hill ISD, said the district reorganized the schedules to give buses more time to get around to all the schools.
The change increases the time gap from when the middle school and high school let out.
Motal said the buses were making it from elementary schools to the middle school in good time, but there was consistently a delay in them getting to the high school. This schedule change gives the buses more time and will allow high school students to go straight to their buses and get home safer and quicker.
"We hope they have a better experience during dismissal, whether it's the parent pick up line, going to pick up their kids, or the buses. You know, kids aren't having to wait after, school standing outside, you know, whether it's hot or cold, for 10, 15, 20 minutes waiting for the bus," Motal said.
With temperatures as high as they are right now, the district said this change is especially important so students aren't waiting outside in the heat.
It also shouldn't have that big of an impact on the students' schedules.
"We already had the doors open 30 minutes before school, so we had a majority of kids there already," Motal said. "It's the afternoon that I think we're going to see the biggest benefit if we're going from a 25-minute time gap at middle school to high school to a 35-minute time gap."
Liberty Hill ISD isn't the only district that has adjusted its schedule this year. Round Rock ISD is also starting five minutes earlier to add to the district's days of banked minutes, to add more instructional days to the academic calendar in case of inclement weather.