Hempfield Area School District’s students might get home earlier next academic year.

The school board will vote next week on whether to make an adjustment to the district’s arrival and dismissal schedule. The adjustment would place the high school and middle school students on the same schedule — shifting the middle school day to start and end about an hour earlier.

The elementary schedule would start and end about a half hour earlier. High school students would remain largely unaffected — starting school 10 minutes later and leaving 15 minutes earlier.

The move is meant to get the elementary school students home earlier, Superintendent Mark Holtzman said.

“Due to the nearly 100 square miles of our community, it is challenging to get (some of) those (elementary) children home before 5 p.m.” Holtzman said, “and we would love to do that a little better and maybe have an opportunity to get them home 15 minutes or so earlier.”

The school district educates students from Hempfield, Adamsburg, Hunker, Manor, New Stanton and Youngwood — a 95-square-mile territory, according to the district’s website. It has nine schools — five elementary schools, two middle schools, a ninth grade building and a high school.

The high school day runs from 7:20 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Middle school starts at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 3:20 p.m., and elementary school starts at 9 a.m. and dismisses at 3:40 p.m.

If the revised schedule is approved, middle and high school students would start at 7:30 a.m. and dismiss at 2:30 p.m. Elementary students would begin arriving at 8:30 a.m. and dismiss at 3:20 p.m.

Parents weigh pros, cons

Maria Nasse, parent to a Stanwood Elementary kindergarten student, supports the schedule change.

If Nasse’s son Joshua takes the bus, he often arrives at school shortly before the 9 a.m. start time and gets home between 4:30 and 4:45 p.m., Nasse said.

“In the fall time, he would have baseball. He’d have to be at the field at 5:30, and it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’ve got to get home and (do) homework and everything and get to baseball as well,’” she said. “It’s just really late.”

To make sure she gets to work on time, Nasse often opts to drive Joshua to school or asks her father, who is retired, to help Joshua get on the bus.

“I think (the schedule change) would just alleviate some stress on the morning hustle and bustle,” she said.

Cahla Downs — whose children attend the high school and Wendover Middle School — also is in favor of the schedule change.

“I am on board with that,” she said, “because it is very difficult to arrange things with kids with different school schedules, getting out the door.”

All of Downs’ children — two daughters and a son — would be on the same schedule next academic year if the change is approved.

Downs said the earlier departure time would not impact her family since she has a flexible work schedule as a real estate agent. She added her children would rarely be left home alone after school because they participate in sports such as volleyball and track and field.

West Hempfield Middle School parent Kimberly Secosky is worried the change would negatively impact her family’s schedule.

“It’s a terrible idea to have these kids start earlier,” said Secosky, who has a son at West Hempfield Middle School. “My son isn’t a morning person as it is.”

And because Secosky works until 5:30 p.m., she is concerned her son would be left at home unattended after school.

“I know he’s in middle school,” she said, “but the idea of him being by himself for a while these days scares me because of the society we live in.”

The schedule change could place a financial burden on parent Nicole Lemaster, whose son is in third grade at West Hempfield Elementary.

Lemaster spends $63 a week for her son to attend the Greensburg YMCA’s before-school program at West Hempfield Elementary. She drops her son off at the school at 6:45 a.m. and rushes out of work at 3:45 p.m. to make it home in time to get him off the bus.

“I’m worried as a working parent … that, if they make this change, what are we going to do for after-school care?” she said.

Lemaster’s son attended the YMCA’s after-school program at West Hempfield Elementary until it switched locations in 2021.

But she admits the current school schedule has its flaws.

“I’m not a fan of them getting home later,” Lemaster said. “They used to get home at 4:15. My son gets home now at 4:30. I do think that is an issue.”

Board president: Schedule change is ‘obvious right thing’

District administrators first discussed making a change to the school day schedule in January, board President Jerry Radebaugh said.

“I’ve definitely seen it in my own life with my own children that they get home kind of later, and I know that our students get home a little bit later than neighboring districts,” said Radebaugh, a parent to three Hempfield Area graduates and a current middle school student.

“Whenever the administration first presented it to us, we definitely listened and heard them out,” he said, “and I think that their recommendation is the obvious right thing and the choice to move forward to try to get those kids home a lot earlier.”

The district’s students are driven to and from school by about 60 to 70 DMJ Transportation buses, Holtzman said.

“We have enough drivers,” he said. “We just don’t have a surplus.”

The new schedule, if approved, would come with trial and error, Holtzman said.

“It’s kind of an experiment,” he said, “because even though we have plans and we hope that we’re going to meet those time slots, it just depends on the traffic and the flow of things.”

The Hempfield Area School Board will vote on the 2025-26 school schedule at 7 p.m. April 21 in the Hempfield Area Administration Building at 4347 Route 136.

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