Despite the Bellevue school board’s approval of the school district’s plan to implement a later high school start time, there are still various aspects of rolling the morning bell back to 8:30 a.m. in question — some that other districts may be able to assist with.

“I think the whole process has just shown how many factors have to be considered to come up with a good plan, and I just want to say I’m very impressed with the plan,” said school board member Steve McConnell.

The implementation plan presented to and unanimously approved by the board on Jan. 19 was created by a team of 11 district representatives in partnership with Deputy Superintendent for Student Academic Performance and Instructional Leadership Eva Collins. The board had added a provision requesting the plan when they approved the later start time in October.

It addressed the handful of issues that would be most impacted by a later start time, including transportation, sports participation and “tutorial” time when teachers can meet with and academically assist students.

The process of shifting the clock back for Bellevue’s high schools involved working with Metro — which provides transportation for the district. More than 550 high school students currently take one of the five bus routes to school each day.

While addressing board member My-Linh Thai’s concerns about students taking special courses or attending choice schools, the district’s Director of Transportation Tim Bridgeman said that Metro was not the answer for all. In the end, the time change will actually be of greater benefit for students taking the bus, he said.

“With a late start, it actually will help Metro because there’s more opportunities in the morning. Where before it was like you’re either on the 6:30 or 6:45 bus, now you have four or five buses in the morning that you can take to school,” Bridgeman said.

The later release time is expected to impact sports players, notably when they are competing with teams from other districts or in KingCo tournaments.

“Some students will need to leave class early for an athletic competition … With the new schedule, we anticipate these students will miss more class time,” the implementation plan report stated.

However, other school districts potentially following Bellevue’s lead may help remedy the problem.

The Seattle, Northshore and Mercer Island school districts have all voted to delay their high school’s start times. The Issaquah School District is considering following suit.

“Surrounding districts are going to a later start time,” Collins said. “We believe that this is going to resolve itself, that all of our schools will want to go to a different competition time.”

Also of concern was students’ ability to meet with teachers outside of class during tutorial.

Tutorial was identified as a solution in cases when student athletes would be required to leave class early for competitions. With classes extending until around 3:30 p.m. on the new schedule, the implementation team suggested moving tutorial from after school to before school.

But, the current language in the teachers union contracts specify that their work day ends after tutorial.

Moving forward, teams will be working with the teachers union. District representatives are also in talks with KingCo to remedy any sports issues.