Tosa school district to consider later start times for some schools

WAUWATOSA -- The Wauwatosa School Board scheduled a meeting Monday evening, April 23rd.  One of the items on the agenda included Superintendent Phil Ertl's proposal to adjust school start times for the 2012-2013 school year for elementary and middle schools in Wauwatosa.

If the proposal is approved, elementary schools would start at 8:20 in the morning and middle schools would start at 8:10 a.m. The goal of this proposal is to help with the flow of traffic.

"We know there are some areas, if we can get our high school students into school before the drop-off starts for our elementary schools, we feel it would be a little bit safer," Wauwatosa Superintendent Phil Ertl said.

Christine McDuffie is a parent, and says something needs to be done to handle the situation. "We know we had a problem, and continuing to do what we've always done isn't going to solve the problem. We have a lot of students who have cars and more students are being dropped off by their parents, and it is an unsafe situation for a lot of the elementary school kids," McDuffie said.

A car hit a child near Eisenhower Elementary School in 2011, and that raised concern. "Any time a student gets injured, there's a lot of concern and it really leads to some of these changes," Ertl said.

A traffic study is being conducted to come up with some recommendations. The school district is working in cooperation with the city.

FOX6 News is told no decision was made during April 23rd's school board meeting regarding this proposal.