Parents’ Opinions Vary On

School Start Time Issue

By Larissa Lytwyn

Many parents agreed that school start times “could be tweaked a little,” with middle and high school students beginning their day slightly later and elementary school students slightly earlier, yet varying opinions were plentiful during the School Start Time Committee’s public forum last Tuesday, May 25.

The School Start Time Committee was begun by Superintendent of Schools Evan Pitkoff to address several concerns. These included research suggesting that sleep was intrinsically connected to academic and work performance, as well as the transition from a four- to three-tier busing system that has last tier Head O’ Meadow, Middle Gate, and Sandy Hook School students beginning their days as late as 9:10 am and returning home on the bus as late as 4:30 pm.

The committee plans to present its recommendation on the start time issue this summer.

Newtown Middle School students joined high school students on the first tier this year, sharing the same 7:30 am to 1:52 pm schedule.

While many elementary school parents expressed concern over their schools late start times, opinions were more mixed on the middle school transition among the approximately 50 persons attending the May 25 forum.

“We are all concerned about drug abuse,” said Margaret Hull, a former Board of Education member. “But this year,” she continued “we have a situation that is [compromising] the three critical hours and three critical years when our youth are most vulnerable.”

Research suggests that unsupervised pre- and young adolescents are the more likely to experiment will illegal substances, as well as engage in criminal activity.

“We must engage our students in activities during these free after-school hours,” said Ms Hull.

In addition, she urged the committee to consider remembering what “state Board of Education [commissioner Theodore Sergi] has asked our towns to do: take into consideration different age groups and when they learn best, and please remember the vulnerability of our 12-, 13-, and 14-year-olds.”

A 1992 study by the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, “A Matter of Time: Risk And Opportunity In The Non-School Hours,” suggests that children perform better academically and interact better socially if actively involved in after school activities, said Ms Hull.

It called on schools, houses of worship, and community agencies to provide more opportunities for children during their free time.

But Newtown High School parent Barbara Wolf suggested that parents are the ones “ultimately responsible” for their children’s activities, “not the schools or the Board of Education.”

She described the current high school schedule as a “well-oiled machine.”

She also liked the current middle school schedule because it allowed more time for homework to be done in a more-timely manner.

While many elementary school parents cited their multiple concerns about their schools’ late start time, including their children’s increased stress and later elementary school schedule, others disagreed.

“We have more time in the morning to reconnect,” one mother said. “The time is more in tune with her natural body clock.”

But her opinion was the minority among attendees who were elementary school parents.

“Young children are programmed physiologically to wake early,” said Michele Hankin, head of Head O’ Meadow’s new PTA Advocacy Committee. “Parents,” she continued, “are not complacent to the issue of school hours. They have had a year to warm to the new hours, and they haven’t.”

After school lets out at 3:20 pm, she said, about 20 percent of the student population, to her estimation, is picked up to avoid long bus rides home.

Bus rides for some students, many as young as kindergarten or first grade, are as long as 42 to 47 minutes.

In closing, she urged the committee to “look at the savings going from four- to three-tiers. Initially, last June, we were told that approximately $149,000 would be saved. However, this year, $115,000 was transferred to [make the system] work.”

Another Head O’ Meadow parent, Joan Plouffe, reported that she had seen a drastic change in her child in her transition from kindergarten to first grade.

She believes the later start times are the main reason.

“Mornings last year were filled with enthusiasm and anticipation when there was a routine which was focused on getting ready for school,” Ms Plouffe wrote in a statement read by Ms Hankin. “Now the mornings are just idle time. It’s no wonder my daughter is no longer running down the driveway with excitement each morning to meet the bus. The frustration of waiting to go to school in the mornings is compounded by the real lack of playtime caused by coming home at 4 pm.”

She described the change as “a real shame.”

In closing she said, “Let’s not forget what childhoods are about, and please, let’s fix this.”

Dr Pitkoff thanked the public for attending and urged them to come to the committee’s next meeting on Wednesday, June 16, at 7 pm, at Reed Intermediate School, Room 122.