CCSD unveils new class start times for 2026-2027 school year

Clark County School District students can expect the school day to begin at a different time come August after district officials announced modifications to the district’s bell schedule for the 2026-2027 school year on Tuesday.

Classes for middle schools will generally begin at 7:30 a.m., while high school will start at 8:30 a.m. and elementary schools will start at 9:15 a.m., the district announced. Superintendent Jhone Ebert said parents and students will receive notices from the school district about how their specific bell schedules will be affected.

The changes will give high schoolers an extra hour and a half before classes start and elementary students an extra 15 minutes, but middle schoolers will be entering classrooms half an hour earlier. District officials last modified the bell schedule for the 2022-2023 school year.

“The decision to adjust start times is a commitment to student health, safety and academic achievement,” Ebert said, citing research that shows later start times correlate to improved academic performance and mental health outcomes. “We’re making this decision to ensure that every student, from our pre-K to our 12th graders, is sitting in front of the teacher when their brain is most ready to absorb the knowledge that our teachers are sharing with them.”

Ebert added that later high school start times should reduce the number of teenage student traffic collisions.

Jesse Welsh, deputy superintendent of teaching and learning, said the new bell schedule was made with both community input from surveys that netted over 80,000 responses and law enforcement agencies who work with students after school.

“We understand that this decision is far reaching and impacts our community in many ways,” Welsh said, referencing how changing the bell schedule will affect traffic patterns, work commitments, child care responsibilities and extracurricular participation. “We cannot ignore the science. We are choosing to prioritize the physical and mental well-being of our students over the status quo. Ultimately, it’s our primary responsibility to maximize student learning and prepare our students for a great future.”

Despite touting research showing later start times improving student outcomes, middle school students will generally have to enter classes half an hour earlier than they do now. Ebert said eighth grade is around when children have a biological change that makes them stay up later, so the earlier bell schedule should have minimal affects on how well middle schoolers learn.

Bus fleet expanding

Welsh said deciding on a new bell schedule was limited by the school district’s bus fleet. Though he said CCSD has the largest school bus fleet in the country, transporting over 120,000 students every school day, the district will be expanding its bus fleet to accommodate the new bell schedule.

Ebert said the district will spend $5.6 million in bond funds to purchase more buses and approximately $5.1 million annually to hire and pay 51 new bus drivers while maintaining the new buses.

Asked how before- and after-school programs would be affected, Welsh said the decision to move elementary school start times by only 15 minutes was made to mitigate an influx of new enrollments.

“One of the considerations that went into our decision making was we received some very clear feedback from our municipalities that a stronger shift with our elementary was potentially problematic,” Welsh said.

He added that later start times in high schools will open the door for athletes to have early morning sports practices while clubs can now meet before or after school.

Contact Spencer Levering at slevering@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253.