Signatures acquired for school start times referendum
NEW CANAAN — As grade-school parent Jennifer Dalipi stood on Elm Street on May 2 gathering signatures to spur a referendum, she said she is “pretty confident” she has more than the necessary 681 signatures.
The referendum calls for reversing a vote taken by Town Council on the school budget, which includes changing start times to a schedule reliant on a threetier bus schedule.
She believes the two-tier bus schedule would be better for the students and district, instead of the three-tier option, which is currently used. She did admit that the proposed two-tier option may be more expensive, though.
The school start times were originally going to be changed to allow for more sleep for New Canaan High School students, who now must wake up at roughly 7:30 a.m. Proponents of the referendum feel the proposed new start times would then take sleep away from the elementary school students, by starting classes at 7:45 a.m.
The 2021-22 school budget includes $463,000 to change school start times the second half of the school year, which would be closer to $926,000 for the full year.
The two-tier system would cost an additional $1.4 million over the 202021 budget, for a total bus and van cost of $4.6 million, in order to increase the present number of buses from 33 to 47.
The two-system option would mean students from the high school, Saxe Middle School seventh- and eighth-graders and South School would start at 8:15 a.m. This plan would mean South’s school day would end at 2:45 p.m., with the middle school and high school both at 2:50 p.m.
The second tier would be made up of Saxe Middle School fifth- and sixthgraders, East School and West School students and would begin at 9:10 a.m., with an end time of 3:40 p.m.
As the 2021-22 budget stands now, the first tier of buses would take elementary school children for a 7:45 a.m. start and the day would end at 2:15 p.m. In the second tier, high school students would attend from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Also, as part of tier two, the middle school seventh- and eighthgraders would be in school at 8:35 a.m. to 3:05 p.m. For tier three, the middle school’s fifth- and sixthgraders would start at 9:15 a.m. and get out at 3:45 p.m.
For the current academic year, tier one has high school students and the middle school’s seventhand eighth-graders, attending school from 7:30 a.m. to 2:05 p.m. Tier two has middle school grades fifth- and sixth-graders and South students attending school 8:15 a.m. to 2:50 p.m.. Tier three East and West schools are in school 9:05 a.m. to 3:35 p.m.
Dalipi is waiting to gather the signatures from the 20 people who volunteered to join the cause, and she expects to take the signatures to Town Clerk Claudia Weber before the due date of Friday.
Everybody wants a “great outcome” and a “good solution,” for school start times, Dalipi said, and she does not believe one is included in the $92.3 million school budget for 2021-22.
For a referendum to take place, the Town Charter requires 5 percent of the electorate, or 681 votes, to force a referendum since there are 13,621 registered voters in New Canaan as of April 1, according to registrar John Amarilios.
The petition must be filed in the town clerk’s office no later than 30 days after the publication of such legislative action, according to the town charter, which would be Friday.
Once residents vote on the referendum, it will take at least 15 percent of electors, or 2,043 votes, to repeal or overrule the vote. That number would fulfill the majority vote needed.
The referendum would be held to overturn a vote taken after Town Councilman Mike Mauro made a motion, seconded by Maria Naughton, to reduce the Board of Education budget by $463,337, the amount included for in start times.
The motion failed by a vote of 10-2, with Mauro and Naughton voting in favor.
If the referendum were to fail, the new start times allowed for in the 2021-22 budget would be enacted mid-year next year.
Dalipi has raised concerns that parents of younger children have not been informed about the pending changes.
She also said she sent information and studies to the schools officials that show how earlier start times can also negatively impact elementary students.
She sent a study entitled “Earlier school start times are associated with higher rates of behavioral problems in elementary schools,” written by Peggy Keller, Lauren Gilbert, Eric Haak, Shuang Bi and Olivia Smith.
The study appeared in the Journal of the National Sleep Foundation.