It's not like the day is just gone when you start at 8:30. I'd say that's pretty good timing. We actually started a "fitness" class at our school for the last period on odd days, which was basically just practice for whatever sport you played. It let us start earlier so everyone could have room for facilities since we had a small school.

But I don't understand why getting out at 3:30 is so late that they'd want to push things to before school. That's weird.