What's happening – and why we're organizing
Sadly, They're Not Kidding About This
Edmonds School District is proposing to change school start times district-wide beginning in the 2027-28 school year. The plan moves high schools later, but does it by starting elementary schools as early as 7:20 AM. That's not a typo. It's earlier than any elementary school start time in Washington State.
What's Being Proposed
Starting in the 2027-28 school year, Edmonds School District will run four schedule tiers. High schools will move to 8:05 AM, which is a reasonable start time for teens. But to make that work, 12 elementary schools are pushed to the earliest Tier 1: 7:20 AM to 1:50 PM. Other elementary schools in Tier 4 stay closer to a normal school day, starting at 9:25 AM. Same district, same age group, two-hour-and-five-minute gap between them, depending on which tier your school lands in.
Why It Matters
A 7:20 AM start means kindergartners waking at 6:00 AM or earlier, before their bodies are biologically ready, and before most working parents are ready to start the day. It means bus stops in complete darkness for half the school year. And it means school ends at 1:50 PM – hours before most parents get off work – leaving families to find and pay for after-school care many can't afford, in a state where child care already costs a single parent 18% of their income.
This burden lands hardest on the district's Title I schools – 10 out of 12 affected are Title I schools – where families have the fewest options to absorb the change.
We don't think this is a scheduling detail. We think it's a decision that was made the wrong way, for the wrong reasons, and we're asking the school board to change course.
Timeline of Events
- 1
2017
District considers later high school start times. A task force reviews 6,300+ survey responses and flags transportation as the main obstacle. The problem remains unresolved.
- 2
May 2024
District and Edmonds Education Association form a joint committee to study start times, with the four-tier bus system treated as non-negotiable from the start. The first districtwide survey goes out to currently enrolled families. Families not yet enrolled, including incoming kindergarten households, aren't included, and won't be in any future round either.
- 3
March 2025
A second survey presents two proposed options. Both include a 7:20 AM elementary tier, effectively bundling two survey questions into one. No option without it was ever on the table.
- 4
January 2026
A third survey, which asks about implementation timing, goes out the same way, digital-only, buried in the district newsletter. Many families miss it altogether.
- 5
June 2, 2026
The district announces its decision. For the first time, families learn which 12 elementary schools are assigned to the 7:20 AM tier.
- 6
June 2026
Parents start to pack board meetings, submit written comment, and organize almost overnight. A petition on Change.org tops 2,000 signatures within days. ESD Parents United forms. Coverage follows on KOMO, King 5, Fox 13, and My Edmonds News. On June 30, the board holds a study session to weigh its options: keep the plan as proposed, hold current start times, or move all elementary schools a little later.
- 7
July 2026
A wave of written and verbal public comment documents safety, equity, and process concerns in detail. Media coverage continues to grow. No commitment to reconsider is made.
- 8
September 2026
Another board study session, agenda yet to be confirmed. Reconsideration of the elementary start time is expected to come up.
- 9
2027-28 School Year
The new start times take effect, unless the board changes course.
This Isn't Just Bad Timing. It's a Broken Process.
The board's own 2025-26 goals commit to being "timely accessible, and open to communication with all relevant stakeholders." That's not what happened here. Families weren't told which schools were affected until surveys had already closed.
The community was never asked the one question that actually mattered: should any elementary school start at 7:20 AM at all? As much as we would like to believe this was an oversight, it looks more like a faulty process built to produce a predetermined answer.
The process used to reach this decision has its own problems, including the district's own admissions about the survey design. [See how this decision got made →]
Bigger than Just a Scheduling Change
This is bigger than a scheduling change. It's about whether 5-year-olds are asked to sacrifice their health and safety for a decision made without them in mind, and whether a school board that says it values community input actually means it.
We're not backing down. [See the full evidence →]