The Oxford School District approved changes to the start and end times for schools across the district in order to incorporate teachers’ professional learning communities into the regular school day.

Bramlett Elementary, Della Davidson Elementary, Central Elementary and the new Oxford Early Childhood Center will all release students at 2:20 p.m. next year rather than 2:35. Oxford Intermediate School and Oxford Middle School will each run from 8:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., while Oxford High School will start at 8:40 a.m. and finish at 3:41 p.m.

Previously, schools scheduled late start times on days where teachers attended PLCs, but this move ensures teachers have time either before or after school to exchange best practices and coordinate curriculum.

“The cabinet as a whole did an efficiency audit and found some time during the day where they could include those PLC times without having to change the hours that the teachers were actually going to be in the building,” said school board president Carter Myers. “So they recaptured some times that will allow teachers to have those PLCs on kind of a regular cadence without sacrificing instructional time.”

The new start times will go into effect at the start of the 2022-2023 school year.