More than two dozen parents and teachers told the Naperville District 203 School Board and administration they were moving too fast in implementing sweeping changes to the school day for the 2025-26 school year.
The district is studying several proposals, including shifting the start and end times for elementary, middle and high school, adding 15 minutes to the elementary school day and moving to a block schedule for both middle and high school students.
A block schedule offers longer, but fewer, classroom periods in a day, giving students an opportunity for deeper learning and more hands-on projects. They can also receive more support, officials said. The block schedule would include an anchor day one day a week in which the students would attend all of their classes for a shorter length of time.
If approved, the district would roll out the changes in the fall. School board members said towards of the end of a nearly four-hour meeting Monday they were not prepared to vote on the proposal this month and plan to continue discussing it Feb. 18. Some members questioned if the 16,000-student district could phase in some of its changes rather than implement them all at once.
One of the major changes under consideration is altering the times students are in school.
Elementary school students currently attend school from 8:15 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Under the new proposal, their day would start at 7:45 a.m. and end at 2:15 p.m.
Middle school hours would shift later by 50 minutes, moving from an 8 a.m.-to-2:50 p.m. to one that runs from 8:50 a.m. to 3:40 p.m.
The high school day is currently 7:45 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. and would change to 8:20 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. under the new proposal.
These changes would disrupt routines, interfere with parents’ work schedules, affect child care and impact extracurricular activities, parents and teachers said at the board meeting. Some parents mentioned that day care facilities already have a wait list for the fall. Some teachers said there wasn’t enough notice to plan while others said they had concerns the new schedule would impact efforts to retain and attract teachers to the district.
“Fall 2025 is a rushed and unrealistic timeline for many of the sweeping changes that are rolled into the Innovative School Experience proposal,” said Emma Oliver, band director at Kingsley and Elmwood elementary schools.
“Fall 2025 may seem far away, but teachers and students are already living with one foot in this school year and one in the next. … With so much uncertainty on the horizon for fall 2025, I already feel like I am hindered from giving my students their best opportunity to be successful.”
Union leadership said the new start and end times as well as shifting to the block schedule have been poorly received by teachers in a recent survey. The Naperville Unit Education Association sent out the survey Jan. 24 after the district publicly released its proposed start and end times and more than 68% of its membership responded.
Of those completing the survey, only 6.7% were in favor of the proposed start and end times for elementary school, and 10.6% were in favor of adding an extra 15 minutes to the elementary school day.
Parent Julia Alamillo said a 7:45 a.m. elementary school start time would be one of the earliest start times among nearby school districts and would be an hour and 20 minutes earlier than neighboring Indian Prairie School District 204. Already by Friday, her kindergartner is exhausted from the school week, she said.
Dr. Sulaiman Farooqui told the board that sleep affects an entire family. Just because some younger children wake up early doesn’t mean all do, and trading a later start time for teens places a burden on elementary-aged students, he said. Sleep deprivation in children can mimic attention deficit disorder and lead to false diagnoses, he said.
“While evidence supports later school start times for adolescents, studies on younger children actually show mixed results,” he said. “As a psychiatrist I cannot ignore the significant mental health impact this seemingly small change will have on children and their families. Earlier school start times have been linked to increase risk of anxiety, depression, childhood obesity, emotional instability and behavioral problems.”
At the junior high level, the union’s survey said that 5.4% of the teachers were in favor of the proposed start and end times with 82.2% opposed. Of those who responded, 8.5% said they were in favor of the block schedule and wanted to start in the fall. Nearly 78% of respondents said they either do not want to go to a modified block, they need more information or they need more training in how to teach in a block schedule before they could decide.
“Overall, the major shift in start and end times at the junior high level would have a negative impact on staff and their families,” said Rob Hunt, the junior high executive for the Naperville Unit Education Association.
“We have proven time and time again that we are open to change. We will support new ideas. We support new initiatives. We support new curriculum. We support each and every new idea that comes our way. Many of these implementations take place over a series of years.”
Union members feel the district is pushing this too fast without adequate time to plan and address the ripple effects, resulting in eroding trust and morale, he said.
“I believe that more members would be in support of many of the proposals if given a year to prepare and given more specifics, such as what their schedule might look like, what their teams might be and given time to plan for this fundamental change,” Hunt said.
About 40.4% of high school teachers were in favor of the proposed start and end times, the union’s survey results said. About 21% of high school teachers were in favor of moving to a block schedule this fall with others responding they need more training, more information about the plan or at least another year to prepare. About 28.8% of high school teachers do not want the block schedule, according to the union’s survey.
Amy Vogelsang, a teacher at Naperville North High School, said there is not enough time for teachers to adequately prepare for the upcoming school year and the plan places an implicit demand on educators to do unpaid work to revise their lessons to be effective in the new block schedule. More transparency is needed, she said.
“There are so many other questions and details yet to be addressed,” Vogelsang said. “I am open to making changes to improve the learning experience for students. There is plenty of room for growth. However, I do not think the benefits of the proposal before you outweigh the costs.
“If there is a decision to move forward, I beg you not to let an inflated sense of urgency push us somewhere we are not ready to go.”
Naperville North High School teacher Ashley McMahon said she surveyed her junior and senior students, who were confused and questioned how their classes would look and if they could focus for longer class times under the block schedule. Only two students out of 89 had a positive reaction to the new block schedule, she said.
McMahon also questioned how students with attention deficit disorders could concentrate with longer class time.
“Overwhelmingly my students expressed opposition to this proposal and shared their bewilderment that at this point their simplest concerns and their most base level questions, many of whom are about to enter their senior year, remain unanswered,” McMahon said.
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
