The School Start Time Committee worked at its meeting on May 30 to finalize a presentation that will share an option for changing school start times in the district at the Board of Education's scheduled meeting on June 6.

The committee was formed after the Board of Education made a motion at its March 7 meeting for Superintendent of Schools Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, to form the group "to research the possibilities of changing school schedules based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation that middle and high schools start at 8:30 am or later." The committee has been meeting regularly and working toward the June 6 presentation, with three subcommittees looking at different aspects of a potential change.

The committee has focused on an "Option 5" for the presentation, but some details were still left to be finalized as of this week's meeting.

Dr Erardi opened the May 30 meeting by reminding committee members that it has one meeting left before presenting to the school board. Its scheduled June 5 meeting will be used to rehearse the presentation that will be presented to the school board the following day.

As outlined in a handout, Option 5 would have two tiers of bus routes. Schools listed the first tier are Newtown High School, Newtown Middle School, Housatonic Valley Waldorf School, Fraser Woods Montessori School, and Henry Abbott Technical School in Danbury. The school day for NHS and NMS would run from 8 am to 2:32 pm, Housatonic Valley Waldorf School and Fraser Woods Montessori School would run from 8:15 am to 3 pm, and students attending Henry Abbott Technical High School would report to school from 7:20 am to 2:10 pm. Schools listed in the second tier are Reed Intermediate School, Newtown's elementary schools, St Rose of Lima School, and magnet schools. The school day for Reed would run from 8:55 am to 3:27 pm, elementary schools would run from 9:05 am to 3:37 pm, St Rose of Lima School would run from 8:40 am to 3:40 pm, and magnet school students would attend from 9 am to 3:30 pm.

Some time was spent at the meeting discussing whether the arrangement would work for St Rose of Lima School, with teacher Mary Jo Bokuniewicz representing the school.

Dr Erardi said "ongoing meetings" are being held with St Rose of Lima School, and the School Start Time Committee is looking to move St Rose of Lima School from Tier 2 to Tier 1, which would have the school open at an earlier time than in the Option 5 handout.

"We have to do our absolute best to make this work to the benefit of all," said Dr Erardi. He added later, "I do believe that we will have a solution that we can look at as the week gets longer that will eliminate the concerns and move us to a place that allows us to go forward in partnership."

The superintendent reminded those present that there is "work to be done" before the final presentation for the school board.

"This has not been easy work. It hasn't been easy, but it has been thorough and it has been done well," said Dr Erardi.

Committee members spent a portion of the May 30 meeting working in the subcommittees to further prepare the individual parts of the upcoming presentation.