W-H school district officials presented a potential plan for how school start times are viewed, among other transportation topics, during their Wednesday, Feb. 15 meeting.
Start Times were changed in 2012 to help trim budget costs, in an effort to save money on transportation costs in a tough budget year. It was only intended as a temporary measure but has not been changed in 11 years, Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said.
One option to changing start times again – moving middle school starts earlier, followed by high school and elementary school starts – would have required 13 buses and was rejected
“First of all, I can’t do it in the middle of the contract, secondly … my transportation director said, ‘You’re never going to get the drivers,’” Szymaniak Said. “First Student does not have those drivers right now.”
Of three other scenarios, would cost $10,000 per day more.
Despite some initial confusion over past discussions of the start time issue and agenda language, School Committee Chair Christopher Howard said no vote would be taken at the meeting.
The members of the Student Advisory Council, speaking during the meeting’s public forum, said their peers in W-H schools, particularly at Conley and Indian Head Elementary schools, a majority supported starting earlier – even before 7 a.m. – concerned that starting later would interfere with school activities.
Noah Roberts said the Council members had visited students at the elementary and middle schools to survey them on a number of topics, which they said they would report to the committee at another time.
“[Conley students] felt that having an earlier start time would allow them to do more social activities and participate in their schedule more,” he said. But Hanson students, were more split. The Council found that the students would love to participate in more after-school activities, especially those curtailed by COVID.
A proposed change – out of a range of options discussed by the School Committee – would change the high school day to 7:20 a.m. to 1:55 p.m.; middle schools to 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; Conley to 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Duval to 9:35 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. and Indian Head to 9:05 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. with no additional cost to the district.
Before the start time change, the high school started classes at 7:25 a.m., elementary grades at about 8:30 a.m., with middle schools beginning their day at 7:45 a.m. The district ran 10 more buses at that time.
A past concern of Hanson parents that students were dealing with extremely long bus rides, it became apparent that drivers on some routes were stopping at every house instead of designated stops.
Szymaniak said that has been stopped.
“We started looking at different drivers who were accommodating different people,” he said, noting the school district did not have its own tracking devices to get a handle on it sooner. “I don’t want to throw it on First Student, but the driver shortage has impacted who we have. … If the kids say, ‘drop me off here,’ they’re dropping them off there.”
Szymaniak said he believes that having the right technology would stop it completely.
The current First Student contract stipulates that the district assigns the bus stops.
“But no parent’s going complain that their kid gets picked up at their house,” Committee member Glen DiGravio said. “That’s why it’s never been brought up.”
He admitted with a laugh that he complains about the time on the bus all the time, but is also happy his kid gets picked up at his house.
Another challenge to any change in start times is the need to align the elementary schools to a 6.5-hour day that the fifth-graders in Hanson have, Szymaniak said.
Committee member Dawn Byers said that is the most important aspect of the start time discussions.
“It involves zero expense increase,” she said last week. “Moving the high school start time also involves zero expense increase.”
Szymaniak said during the Feb. 15 meeting that the added costs came into play in attempting to align elementary start times.
He said that, while students at the high school want later start times, but many they have also said they don’t want to leave for the day past 2 p.m. Athletic Director Bob Rodgers has assured Szymaniak that, if high school students get out by 2:30 p.m., he can get student-athletes to games.
Committee member Fred Small asked if any start time change would have to be bargained with the teacher’s union. Szymaniak said it would be a bargaining point.
“What’s important is that we talk about the facts vs. the myths,” Byers said. “Talk about science, and the wellness of students.”
She said the issue included considerations of social-emotional wellness as well as physical health and nutrition.
“If the science says they should start later, then we should go with science before we go with the kids saying what they want,” Vice Chair Christopher Scriven said, noting he did not want to discourage students from voicing their concerns.
“We’re focused on the start times, but the CDC recommends ‘reasonable curfews’ at night for students,” said Committee member Michelle Bourgelas. “What time are these kids going to bed? … High school kids can be parented.” She also expressed concern that, in the interest of ending the high school day in time for sports, other extra-curricular activities lose out.
Any school start time has to be bargained with the teacher unions, Szymaniak said, but the School Committee first has to make a decision on a change.
“What no one wants to admit is that we are hurting kids,” Byers said, advocating an 8:30 high school start time student health and well-being. “We are intentional about that … the 7:05 a.m. [high school start] can’t continue.”
Committee member Hillary Kniffen said elementary school kids who do extra-curricular activities are not being included in the conversation.
“Might I remind everybody we are dealing with children,” she said “The kids who will be in fifth-grade next year, were in first grade when the world shut down [during the pandemic]. These are kids who have not had the opportunity to develop responsibility and social skills and things [that other] children had because they’re older.”
She advocated educating all families on the potential effects of school start times, because the high school students seem to be the primary focus of concern.
“I am 100-percent in favor of getting healthy start times for all of our students, but I think we have seen some tunnel vision and we need to … get out there with the solutions to this problem,” Kniffen said.
DiGravio agreed that there is no ideal solution, but argued if parents send their kids to bed early enough to get eight hours of sleep the start times are workable, noting the average start time in the state is 7:50 and in the country at 8 a.m. For high schoolers.
“It’s a lot of money and a lot of moving parts for 20 emails,” he said. “How many people truly want this besides voices we hear here? I’m not sold.”
Start time issue aside, Committee member David Forth said it was good to see the 20 to 30 emails from parents on the issue.
“Since I’ve been on the School Committee, there’s very few instances that I’ve seen parental outreach that much,” he said. “They took the time to reach out to the School Committee and voice their opinion. It’s nice to have their input, it’s nice to have student input, and these are things we haven’t had much of in the past.”
Howard calculated that, if the latest they want an elementary school to let out is 3:30 p.m., then the earliest they can open is 8 a.m.
“We know the early part,” he said. “There’s certainly a concern about starting school too early, but we need to understand the back-end.”
He concluded the committee needs more information from more people.
Parent Chris George of Whitman stressed that circadian body rhythms were the concern for healthy students, noting while school events in the lower grades start before 7 p.m., high school events are another matter.
“We have school-sponsored, high school events that go until late at night,” he said. “If we’re not willing to move the start time, are we prepared to tell Bob Rodgers he can’t have a 7:30 p.m. Basketball game? … Those are the things that you need to start doing if you can adjust the front [end].”
George argued moving the high school start time affects the most amount of kids and is the best choice for the current situation, but it has to come with a long-term plan. His kids, who no longer go to school in the W-H district both get up after the high school bus has come and gone in the morning and they both play sports and enjoy after-school activities.
Another parent said the survey sent out focused on high school students, but felt the other grades have not been sufficently considered.