Wednesday night, the Philipsburg-Osceola School District voted to shorten schools days.

The high school, middle school and elementary school will have later start times.

Billie Bowery in West Decatur has a granddaughter in the school district and approves of the time change.

“I think it’s good for the students-we wouldn’t have to worry about them out on the roads at 6 o’ clock, 6:30 in the morning,” Bowery, said.

High school students will start at 8am instead of 7:40am and end at 2:35pm instead of 2:25pm.

Middle school students will go from starting at 7:35am to starting at 8am and the end of the day will stay at 2:35pm.

Elementary students will continue to start at 8:15am but will now get out at 2:55pm instead of 3:25pm.

Superintendent Gregg Paladina says parents have expressed concerns about the time change conflicting with them getting to work.

He says for the first time, each school will open 40 minutes before start time and have teacher-student supervision in the cafeterias.

“We decided as a service to our parents to make up for the time they have to travel there-we would be able to provide some coverage for them to drop their kids off,” Superintendent Paladina, said. “They can have breakfast in the cafeteria.”

Paladina says the later start will allow teachers to have a 40 minute prep period before school to work together and go over student data.

He says the time will be cut from breaks in between class periods, “specials” or electives and “home room” time.

Time changes will start in the 2020-2021 school year.