Wilmington Schools Considering Start Time Changes Again

WILMINGTON, MA — Wilmington school officials are once again exploring a change to school start times, after the process came to a halt with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.

The School Committee could vote on new start times at their April 13 meeting, Superintendent Glenn Brand said in a presentation at their Jan. 12 meeting, as first reported by the Wilmington Apple.

Brand discussed research showing early start times are bad for adolescent learning and wellbeing and presented five scenarios the Start Time Committee developed for new schedules.

There has been an interest in changing start times since he first arrived in the district, Brand said, and the committee worked for six months before the pandemic. The committee featured students, parents, staff and more from across the district.

"Recommendations in the research suggest that ideally middle and high school students start school within the 8:00 a.m hour and closer to 8:30 a.m. if possible," Brand's report said. "As a district, we are falling out of step with the large Middlesex League where a number of districts have more recently made changes to their start times."

The committee sought start time scenarios that would not have any students picked up prior to 7 a.m., have high school start between 7:50 and 8:30 and end between 3 and 3:15, and keep the current length of the school day. They also sought to avoid the need for additional buses.

The committee proposed five arrangements, available on pages 85 and 86 of the School Committee packet. The simplest scenario shifts all schools 20 minutes later; others involve grouping together certain schools, compressing the schedules and reordering their start times.

The district plans to gather feedback through Feb., present findings to the School Committee on March 9 and potentially have a decision April 13 following additional public input at School Committee meetings.

The full meeting is available here from WCTV.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.