The district my kids are in is even earlier, we're at a very high latitude, and on paper the reasoning is so that even in the darkest days of mid December the k

The district my kids are in is even earlier, we're at a very high latitude, and on paper the reasoning is so that even in the darkest days of mid December the kindergartners travel time at the start and end of the day will be in sunlight. The same bus that carries a high school kid between 6am and 7am carries a grade school kid from 8am to 9am (roughly). Its actually even more complicated because we stagger grade school, middle school, and high school, so there's a middle school run from 7am to 8am in between. Rather than three times as many buses and drivers each only working two hours a day, they all put in pretty much an 8 hour working day split shifts. Unofficially its all about high school sports and away games travel time, also somewhat optimistically getting in a practice or maybe even a game/meet before a "normal-ish" dinner time.