Norwood School Committee Approves New School Start Times

NORWOOD, MA - The School Committee at its meeting Wednesday night voted unanimously to approve the change in school start times for the district's eight schools at the beginning of 2022-23 school year in September.

The process for the change began five years earlier, when former Superintendent Jim Hayden received unanimous support from the School Committee in 2017 to create a subcommittee to research school start times. It performed research between May 2017 through June 2018, when the committee voted to continue the work under current Superintendent David Thomson.

The initial start date had been proposed for September 2019, but this was pushed back a year because of the operational override. COVID-19 further delayed the change. In March 2021, the committee approved implementing the new start times by a 4-1 vote for the 2022-23 school year.

Parents were vocal on both sides of the argument. At the beginning of the meeting, Chair Teresa Stewart read from 15 emails submitted during the public comment period that varied from strong support to outright opposition. In addition, a petition that garnered more than 500 signatures against the change has been submitted online.

Colleen Randall, who created the petition, called for the School Start Time Task Force reconvene to reconsider the change and reflect on the impact on elementary school students.

"The decision was made before COVID, and we, the students, staff and teachers, are still feeling the lasting effects of the past two years," Randall stated in her letter. She also hoped to get more parents and staff members involved in the process.

Members of the task force appeared before the committee virtually to explain the rationale behind the decision.

Dana Brown, director of strategic initiatives and logistics, said the move was reached unanimously because both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that middle and high schools should start at 8:30 a.m. or later.

"The research has been clear," said Brown. "It's documented and it's online."

The shift is being made so that elementary school times will not move more than an hour earlier than their current times. It was also done so that the override pledge would not be broken and taxes would not be raised.

The change has been discussed by the School Committee several times. In addition, there have been online forums and surveys.

Transportation was a key factor in the decision. The bus fleet currently consists of 13 buses. Special education students need to be transported as well as students at St. Catherine's, Brown explained.

Because the middle school has the highest number of bus registrations, it had to receive priority. It also takes about 30 minutes for the bus to travel from the Coakley to the high school. The Willett Early Childhood Center adds another layer to the transportation plan in addition to the elementary schools.

Starting everyone at the same time is not an option because it would cost approximately $2.5 million for more buses, Brown added.

There is a transportation issue now for middle school students, he explained. Some are picked up as early as 6:35 a.m. and are dropped off at 7:05 a.m. The staff doesn't have to report until 7:10. With the shift, no student will have to be picked up that early.

School Committee member Myev Bodenhofer provided a financial analysis showing that the district currently spends nearly $2.2 million on transportation. Adding nearly $2.5 million for additional buses, drivers and monitors would not be feasible.

In contrast, when the override was additionally proposed in 2019, shaving $1.715 million from the budget would have meant closing the Willett and eliminating 9.2 teachers, the athletics program, and extracurricular arts and activities.

If taxes were to be raised so that everyone could go to school at the same time, the average taxpayer would have to pay an additional $164 a year at least.

She noted that the School Committee in 2019 pledged not to ask for another override for five years.

Consideration was made to keep the elementary schools and the Willett close together to help parents with children attending both.

"I know that the existing school start times have been in place for a long time and people have gotten used to them," Bodenhofer said. "In fact, I'm sure that most of the families and staff have built the rest of the schedules around the times that they are now, and making a change would be very disruptive to many families' schedules."

She added that the current times "were nobody's first choice." Now, there is more information about adolescents' circadian rhythms and the impact on their learning.

"However I also feel the need to express my frustration and disappointment with the claims I have heard that the administration and School Committee don't care and aren't listening," she continued. "I have absolutely listened to and considered every bit of feedback I can on this."

While some families are negatively impacted, others were pleased because the 8:25 a.m. current drop off was challenging for them to get to work.

She made the motion to accept the task force's recommendation and disband the task force.

Member David Hiltz thanked the task force and his colleagues.

"This is a well-researched and comprehensive plan to make change in the school system based off of good research and good policy," he said.

To accommodate parents, Stewart said that the extended day program would be expanded.

What will the new times be?

The new start times for students will be as follows:

• Elementary schools: start time of 7:50 a.m., dismissal time of 2:05 p.m.
• Willett School: start time of 8:10 a.m., dismissal time of 1:40 p.m.
• High School: start time of 8:15 a.m., dismissal time of 2:50 p.m.
• Coakley Middle School: start time of 8:45 a.m., dismissal time of 3:20 p.m.

There are no changes to the Little Mustangs Preschool Academy schedule.

The meeting can be viewed at this link from NCM.