Subcommittee mulls changes to school start times

After 18 months of research examining school start times, Canton Superintendent Jeff Granatino and a subcommittee of parents, teachers, and administrators are looking at two options for the next school year: essentially swapping the start times of the middle and high schools, with the high school starting 35 minutes later and the middle school starting 15 minutes earlier, or keeping the current start times for all schools.

Granatino held two meetings last Wednesday — one for staff and one for parents — to gain input on the proposed change. Forty parents attended the evening session and asked a multitude of questions and made many suggestions, ranging from starting the elementary schools earlier to starting the high school well past 8 a.m.

Speaking after last Thursday’s School Committee meeting, Granatino said he wants to hold one or two additional subcommittee meetings to examine all options before presenting his findings to the full School Committee in February. Granatino said if the times do change, he would like to give as much advance notice as possible to parents, staff, students, and the bus company.

School start times has become a hot topic around the nation amid a growing body of research that points to the need for adolescents to get more sleep. Studies have shown that teens need at least 8 ½ to 9 ¼ hours of sleep per night in order to maximize learning potential and academic performance.

Many area communities have changed their start times, including Duxbury, where elementary students start earliest, and Sharon, where the high school starts at 8:05 a.m. Nationally, 50 percent of high schools and middle schools start the day at 8 a.m. or later. Other area communities that have changed their start times include Rockland, Hingham, Needham, Medway, Bedford, and Arlington.

Granatino said the option to swap the middle and high school start times would allow the high school students to get a little more sleep and would not require any additional buses. According to Granatino, adding even one more bus would cost the district an additional $50,000.

Under the change proposed by the subcommittee, CHS would begin at 7:55 a.m. and end at 2:19 p.m. The current school day begins at 7:20 a.m. and ends at 1:44 p.m. At the middle school, the opening bell would be pushed back from 7:45 to 7:30 with the day ending at 1:50 p.m. as opposed to the current ending time of 2:05.

Besides cost, Granatino said other factors to consider are the impacts to athletic practices and games, after-school academic support, extracurricular activities, babysitting and work, and traffic.

At the parent meeting last week, reaction to the proposed changes was mixed. Some said it wasn’t worth it to change the times for an additional 35 minutes, while others felt that the extra sleep would be advantageous for CHS students in the long run.

Granatino said the subcommittee did not want to disrupt the elementary schedule and felt that elementary students should not be out at a bus stop in the “pitch black” at 6:30 a.m., although many parents who spoke at the meeting did not seemed to be opposed to that option.

Granatino said most GMS buses arrive at the school at 7:20 a.m. with many students arriving as early as 7:05 a.m. Many parent comments about the middle school focused on what the students would do with the extra time after school. Parents also asked for more extracurricular activities for GMS students and the restoration of a late bus.

Some parents mentioned the need for more student input while others asked that the subcommittee explore different start times for the Luce School. Currently, the Luce has the latest schedule of all the schools, starting at 8:55 a.m. and ending at 3:15 p.m. Parents said this would put them at a disadvantage when they get to the middle school, where an earlier start time would require them to be at a bus stop at 6:30 a.m. Some parents added that the later ending time at the Luce School does not give them enough time to get to afternoon activities.

Granatino disclosed that under the present bus contracts, he does have the option of alternating the start times of the Hansen, Luce, and Kennedy schools so that the Luce does not have the latest start and ending times every year. Currently, the Hansen and JFK school days run from 8:25 a.m. to 2:40 p.m.

Granatino thanked all of the parents for attending the presentation, and he personally answered all of their questions while taking note of all suggestions.

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Posted by Mike Berger on Jan 23 2014. Filed under News, Schools. Both comments and pings are currently closed.