Walsh: Festivities not school protest time

Mayor Martin J. Walsh scolded parents for using holiday festivities yesterday to protest the city’s controversial new school start times.

“It’s a Christmas-tree lighting,” Walsh said. “It’s not the appropriate place for it.”

Sign-carrying parents from Start Smart BPS turned up at Washington and Grove streets in West Roxbury yesterday to try to pressure Walsh and city leaders to stop the proposed school times.

Walsh said he wants parents to come forward with their ideas and solutions.

“We’re going to take the next week to really listen to people,” Walsh said. “I hear their concerns, there’s no question about it. We’ll probably take the next step in the next 10 days or so to see what happens. Everything’s on the table at this point. The implementation is on the table, the potential delay is on the table, everything’s on the table.”

Erin Birmingham of Start Smart BPS told the Herald the group was respectful and didn’t interrupt the event. She said the group had made unsuccessful attempts to speak with Walsh.

“If he was not willing to speak with us and issue a statement, then we were going to have to come to him,” Birmingham said, adding that Walsh spoke to members of the group before and after yesterday’s event.

The announced start times would be 7:30 a.m. or earlier for more than three dozen elementary and K-8 schools, to let high schools start after 8 a.m. Associated Industries of Massachusetts said it would be hard for employers to let parents leave work early to pick up kids.