New Canaan BOE agrees to postpone change in start times
Officials say initiative will be pushed to September 2022
NEW CANAAN — Though no vote was taken, school board members spoke one at a time on Monday, saying they agreed the later school start times should commence in September 2022, instead of in April as was originally planned.
Since spring of 2017, the district has discussed moving to later start times after citing a plethora of studies that say more sleep for the older students improves student health. Earlier this year, Town Council approved a $95.7 million budget that includes $463,337 for the later times starting in the spring.
Superintendent Bryan Luizzi told the Board of Education he would like feedback on whether the schools should delay later start times. The board members said they still believe later start times are important, however they want to make sure the new initiative is done well.
Board member Dionna Carlson said there could be “operational challenges” caused by having only one week to transition, instead of making the change after the summer. “We don’t want it to be with a lot snafus and a lot of problems,” she said. She also expressed concern for teachers who would have to shift childcare and their commuting schedules midyear.
In late September, a gathering of 27 people that represented the schools and the community outlined the pros and cons of schools beginning later for April as opposed to September, Luizzi told the board.
The group included representatives from the school board, administrators, teachers, athletics, transportation staff, preschools and afterschool programs. The group is not a decision-making body, but rather an advisory body to the board, Luizzi said.
It was a “very rich discussion” with attendees giving “push back” on the “impact of logistics,” Chairman Katrina Parkhill said.
Some of the biggest concerns were expressed by those who oversee afterschool programs at the YMCA, Playland and the Nature Center, Luizzi told board members.
“The later start time doesn’t just impact the schools, but it impacts the entire ecosystem where the schools operate,” Luizzi, said as he relayed the input from the recent advisory meeting
The afterschool programs will benefit from having elementary schools start at the same time, but the organizations may have difficulty hiring staff mid-school year and may need to issue refunds to families who are signed up for the present schedule, Luizzi explained.
The school district plans to change start times to 8 a.m. for elementary schools, 8:30 a.m. for grades seven to 12 and 9:15 a.m. for fifth and sixth grades. Luizzi hopes to get the later time closer to 9 a.m.
The new schedule would mean that no student is picked up before
7:10 a.m. in the morning, in contrast to the present schedule in which the first child is being picked up a 6:28 a.m., the superintendent said.
The new time table works, since busing the grade schools at
the same time is faster due to bus routes being shorter since there are three school locations. The bulk of the additional expenses for later start times is $378,668 needed to pay for seven new buses to transport all the elementary students at the same time.
Although other towns are experiencing bus driver shortages, New Canaan is not because of a good ongoing relationship with the drivers, Luizzi said.
Originally, the schedule called for the first school bell to be at 7:45 a.m., but the goal was to move it to 8 a.m.
At previous meetings, Luizzi had explained that there are a few routes that slowed down the morning bus trips for up to eight extra minutes, because of long turn arounds needed after picking outlying students up.
He recommended using “type 2” buses, which would carry 16 to 20 students. The school board voted to move forward on obtaining the two smaller buses.
Although a vote was not taken, it appears the later school start times will be delayed one more time. Parents asked the board to make the change. The board was then disappointed in April 2020 when Town Council lopped off $1.1 million from the 2020-21 budget, indirectly removing money the board had expected to use for later start times.