Language being written for referendum
Efforts are being made by opponents to earlier start times for grade school students to hold a referendum to overturn school start time changes.
Earlier grade school start times comes as a consequence of later start times for New Canaan High School students.
The referendum awaits the first step, having language crafted for “a notice of intent to petition,” which needs to be signed by at least 50 electors of the town to be filed in the town clerk’s office.
Grade school parent James Yao said he approached the Town Clerk Claudia Weber regarding the referendum, because the school board has “not done impact studies on what this will do to elementary school children and their families.”
“A referendum is complicated and the language around it is proving challenging,” proponent of the referendum Jennifer Dalipi said.
The referendum is being sought to reverse a vote that was taken at the Town Council budget meeting on March 31, that approved the $154.5 million town operating budget.
Councilman Mike Mauro made a motion, seconded by Maria Naughton, to reduce the Board of Education operating and health insurance budget of $92.3 million by $463,337, the amount projected for a change in start times 202122 midyear.
The motion failed with a vote 2-10, with Mauro and Naughton voting in favor. Those who voted against comprised of Chairman John Engel, Penny Young, Cristina Ross, Tom Butterworth, Mark Grzymski, Sven Englund, Rich Townsend
and Robin MasonBates.
Weber is still determining the process, since referendums in New Canaan do not usually reverse a negative vote, Administrative Officer Tucker Murphy told Hearst.
“The motion to reduce the Board of Education budget failed. Typically, in New Canaan a referendum would seek to overturn an approval of something,” Murphy said.
Weber is working with the town attorney to ensure that the referendum is properly set up. The town clerk “is working on it nonstop as she knows what it as stake and how important this is to many residents,” according to Murphy.
Although the intent to petition needs to be filed with the town clerks’ office within seven days after the publication of such legislative action, that clock has not started ticking yet, since the vote has not yet been published.
The procedures and rules for referendum on legislative action are set out in Section C4-16 of the town charter.
After the language is written and if the proponents of the referendum get 50 signatures, the next step is a petition which requires no less than five percent of the electors. That petition must be filed in town clerk’s office no later than 30 days after the publication of such legislative action, according to the town charter.
It is up to Town Council to set the date. “An affirmative action of the Town Council shall not be repealed, nor a negative action overruled, unless the number of votes in favor of repeal or overrule shall be a majority of those voting and equal to at least 15 percent of the numbers of electors of the town as determined by the last completed registry list,” according to the charter.
There are 13,621 registered voters in New Canaan as of April 1 of this year, according to registrar John Amarilios. That would mean to meet the five percent requirement to initiate the referendum it would take 681 votes. To repeal or overrule the vote would take a majority of those voting, equal to at least 15 percent of electors, or 2,043 votes.
If the referendum were to fail, the new hours would mean the first tier, East School, South School and West School, would start at 7:45 a.m. and let out at 2:15 p.m. The second tier, New Canaan High School, would ring the first bell at 8:30 a.m. and discharge students at 3 p.m. Also, as part of tier two, Saxe Middle School upper grades, seventh and eighth, would get going at 8:35 a.m. and be released at 3:05 p.m. For tier three, Saxe Middle School’s fifth and sixth grades would start at 9:15 a.m. and get out at 3:45 p.m.
Yao has made emotional pleas to the Board of Education not to move forward with this schedule.
He commutes to New York City and fears he will have trouble getting home in time to see his children before bedtime. “I can’t think of a crueler thing to do to a five-year-old little child than to rip a parent from their daily lives,” he said at a budget meeting.
Since grade schools kids will be getting out shortly after 2:00 p.m., parents will need to arrange for childcare and there are already waiting lists for child care in New Canaan, the father of two said.
Dalipi backs the referendum because she wants to protect New Canaan families from what she refers to as a ‘back tax’ to live in New Canaan, since parents of grade school children would need to pay for more childcare.
At public hearings, parents of South School children have tried to reassure parents concerned about the changing start times, saying starting early is not so bad.
Currently, the first tier transports high school students and the Saxe Middle School seventh and eighth graders to kickoff their school day at 7:30 a.m.; tier two takes South School pupils and Saxe Middle School fifth and sixth graders to start school at 8:15 a.m.; a third tier takes students to West and East schools to begin their day at 9:05 a.m.