In an email that went out to families on Friday, March 4th, Missoula County Public Schools released the schedules they are proposing for fall of 2022. All schools were trying out different things during the pandemic, including late start times, staggered start times, and "office hours." Now that staff, students, and families have had a chance to experience these alternate bell schedules, here's what MCPS is suggesting for fall.

Elementary Schools
K-3 - Start: 8:25 A.M; Dismissal 3 P.M.
4-5 - Start 8:25 A.M.; Dismissal 3:30 P.M.

Middle Schools
Start: 8:05 A.M.
Dismissal: 3:20 P.M.

Missoula High Schools
Start: 7:50 A.M.
Dismissal: 3 P.M.

Seeley-Swan High School
Start: 7:50 A.M.
Dismissal: 3:37 P.M.

Check your email for the "brief overview of some of the reasoning that helped guide this proposal." And be sure to check your spam folder, I found mine in my Gmail "promotions" folder, which is weird because my school stuff always seems to come through, maybe it was something with the address they sent it from.

Over the past two years, it seemed teenagers of Missoula were 50/50 on the late start and release times. Most people realize that the way teenage biology works is that they naturally sleep later and wake up later, that's not kids being lazy, that's science. I personally feel like it was very effective for many students. However, high schoolers involved in a lot of extracurricular activities and those who are employed found it difficult to manage their evenings with the late release at 3:55.

My friends with younger kids seemed to have difficulty with getting to work on time and arranging for after-school child care with the alternate schedules. And I can imagine the difficulty instructors were experiencing, they seemed to be working later and later in the day.

If these proposed times are approved will this affect your family? Would you rather have the kids start earlier or later?

Check Out the Best-Selling Album From the Year You Graduated High School

Do you remember the top album from the year you graduated high school? Stacker analyzed Billboard data to determine just that, looking at the best-selling album from every year going all the way back to 1956. Sales data is included only from 1992 onward when Nielsen's SoundScan began gathering computerized figures.

Going in chronological order from 1956 to 2020, we present the best-selling album from the year you graduated high school.

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