Good afternoon Unit 4 Families,
Champaign Unit 4 Schools is dedicated to providing rich and engaging learning experiences for each of our students. With this goal in mind, a committee of teachers, administrators, support staff, parents, and community partners has been meeting for the past several months to review our current bell schedule and update student start/stop times for the upcoming school year (2023-2024). We want to let you know now that our schedules will be changing slightly for the upcoming school year so you can plan accordingly. A chart showing the revised schedule can be found at the end of this message.
Updated school bell schedules are needed for many reasons, including the following:
❖ During negotiations with our teachers’ union (CFT) in 2022, we increased the length of the student instructional day to 6 hours and 50 minutes for all K-5 and PK-8 campuses beginning with the 2023-2024 school year. We are excited about having this additional time to work with our students each day.
❖ Better spacing of start and end times between campuses dramatically reduces the possibility of us having to cancel transportation services for students and families on such short notice each day.
❖ The new schedule better aligns dismissal schedules of our elementary and middle schools based on feeder patterns, improving families’ ability to coordinate drop off and pick up.
❖ Adjusting Early Childhood times reduces CECC transportation delays and significantly improves our ability to transport our youngest students on time.
❖ Having both PK-8 schools (Garden Hills and IPA) on the same bell schedule will allow for more efficient transportation for athletics and extracurricular activities as both schools continue to grow.
❖ Revising the schedules in this manner now reduces the likelihood that the District will need to modify the bell schedule again in the near future.
We understand that some families and staff members may experience some individual inconvenience as a result of these modifications. It is important to remember, however, that it is impossible to operate a District of 10,000+ students and nearly 20 campuses in a manner that is best for every single person. I am very proud and appreciative of the hard work our team put into maximizing efficiency of our system while keeping disruptions to a minimum.
I appreciate your continued support and willingness to work together to ensure all students receive the best educational experiences possible.
Thanks for all you do!
Campus | Student Start Time | Student End Time |
Early Childhood AM | 9:05 | 11:35 |
Early Childhood PM | 1:05 | 3:35 |
Barkstall | 8:40 | 3:30 |
Booker T. Washington | 8:40 | 3:30 |
Bottenfield | 8:40 | 3:30 |
Carrie Busey | 7:45 | 2:35 |
Dr. Howard | 7:45 | 2:35 |
Garden Hills PK-8 | 7:45 | 2:35 |
International Prep Academy PK-8 | 7:45 | 2:35 |
Kenwood | 8:00 | 2:50 |
Robeson | 7:45 | 2:35 |
South Side | 8:40 | 3:30 |
Stratton | 8:40 | 3:30 |
Westview | 8:00 | 2:50 |
Edison* | 7:55 | 2:40 |
Jefferson* | 7:50 | 2:35 |
Franklin | 8:10 | 2:55 |
Central* | 8:05 | 3:20 |
Centennial* | 8:05 | 3:20 |
Novak* | 7:50 | 3:18 (TU-FR) 2:18 (M) |
*no change
Dr. Shelia E. Boozer
Superintendent
Champaign Unit #4 Schools
502 West Windsor
Champaign, Illinois 61820
Email boozersh@u4sd.org