Late-start Mondays are a new concept to Roswell students. It’s different and most students have only dreamed of being able to be at school later without any consequences. However, no one really knows why these late starts were put into effect.  

While late-starts are new, early releases are not. During the 2020-2021 school year, Wednesdays were turned into ‘remediation days’ where students could catch up on work they’ve missed. During these Wednesdays, school would end an hour earlier, allowing students without incompletes or any other missing work to leave. One of the major differences between the late-starts and the early release days of last year was that every Wednesday was a remediation day, whereas there’s only one late-start Monday per month. Fulton County’s school board released that there will be a late-start in Sept., Oct., Nov., Jan., Feb., with the last one being in March. 

For the students who drive themselves, or have a ride, the late-starts give them a chance to sleep in. However, for the students who take the bus, they still have to wake up at the same time because the buses will arrive at all of their stops at the normal time. This is a big disadvantage to those students who ride the bus. Freshman Adelaide Tompkins says that “it’s unfair that I have to wake up at the same time, but other people get to stay home until later.”  

Some students have theorized that the late-starts will  be replacing teacher workdays. In a report on the late-starts, Vanessa McCray, a journalist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, wrote that “the schedule is intended to give teachers time for training. Schools developed professional learning plans based on staff needs at each campus.” Fortunately for students, this means that late-start Mondays will not be doing a hostile takeover of teacher workdays.