Later Start Times For Primary, High Schools Proposed In Bridgewater-Raritan

BRIDGEWATER, NJ — Options to adjust school start times and changes to transportation for the Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District were recently discussed.

Mike Archer, the Director of Transportation Services for the Center of Effective School Operations, presented two options for the 2026-27 school year at the Sept. 9 Board of Education(BOE) meeting.

"As you know, 2026-27 is going to represent profound change for the Bridgewater Rarian Regional School District," said Superintendent Robert Beers at the meeting. "We are shifting to a full-day kindergarten program across the district. Our fourth graders are shifting to the intermediate school, and our sixth graders are shifting to the middle school. So essentially, for the 2026-27 school year, we are starting with a blank piece of paper, so to speak, with all of our transportation routes that we currently run."

Currently, the district has 83 buses running that do between two and three trips a day. There are around 33 students riding on average per bus, versus the statewide policy of a maximum of 55 students per bus.

The district uses three different vendors, along with its own fleet and drivers, to provide transportation to the district.

Two options for new school start times for the 2026-27 school year were presented.

Option One will have the high school starting at 7:20 a.m. followed by the middle school at 7:35 a.m., then primary schools(all at the same time) at 8:35 a.m., and intermediate at 9:05 a.m.

"Option one is very close to what was in place several years ago before COVID. It brings a uniform schedule for all primary schools, and the big thing for me is logistics," said Archer. "There is more timing between the first and the second tiers in order to redesign bus routes and to drive some efficiencies into the transportation schedules. This may result in an increase in the fleet somewhere in the neighborhood of four or fewer buses."

Option Two will have the middle school starting first at 7:30 a.m. followed by the high school and middle school at 8 a.m. and then the primary schools at 9:20 a.m.

"Option two, the middle school starts earlier than the high school. There’s some strategy involved in this from a logistical standpoint. Each school level has a different length of day. Primary is 6 hours 20 minutes, middle school is 6 hours and 40 minutes, and the high school is 7 hours and 1 minute under this new schedule," said Archer.

Archer noted that both options are looking for more time for the buses to operate, to be able get more students assigned to them, and utilize the seating capacity.

Option two can be accommodated without any additional fleet or cost. The cost per bus per year is roughly $100,000.

"Both of these options reinstate the lost instructional time from four years ago. That was one of the parameters when we went into this to make it as: one - as cost-neutral as possible, but two - to make sure that we reestablish the minutes that were lost at a couple of our schools because of the transportation crisis four years ago that we had," said Beers.

Specifically, the high school lost 20 minutes of their day with the rerouting of buses four years ago.

"Option one and option two bring us to where things were five years ago," said Beers.

Board members such as Jeremy Li and Michael Pepe brought up concerns about the primary schools starting later in Option Two.

Pepe suggested making an adjustment to option two for primary schools to 10 to 15 minutes earlier.

"10 to 15 minutes is a lot in transportation. We’re looking at it. What I think, what I don't want to do by shifting the primary schools is then cause everything else in the sequence to then be adjusted as well. We are definitely going to look at it to see what the earliest possible could be," said Archer.

Lucy Li raised concerns about the later dismissal times interfering with sports and primary school parents' financial impacts to have to utilize Before Care with a later start time.

Beers agreed that starting school for most or all students around 8 a.m. is ideal but not feasible. And only one group of students will be able to get the 8 a.m. time.

"Only one group gets that, and someone has to go earlier and someone has to go later. And it's up to us to figure out who that is. But no matter which way you slice it, someone is going earlier and someone is going later," said Beers.

Li also suggested going from triple-tier busing to double-tier busing to give more students a similar start time. However, Board President Steven Singer noted that with the costs of buses around $100,000 each that would drive the cost up for the district to more than $1.5 million.

Several parents spoke during public comment, in favor of Option Two noting the benefits of a later school start time for high school students, who currently start at 7:20.

Megan Simone, a parent in Bridgewater and a teacher in Chatham, said that having a later start time in the high school helped increase sleep time, increase wellness, decrease anxiety, decrease stress, and decrease absences.

"The data isn’t surprising; sleep is a basic need," said Simone.

President of the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association (BREA) Laura Kress asked about the impacts of late buses for those students who need to stay for extra help or sports.

"We are looking to explore adding late buses as part of this process, starting with the middle school first then high school," said Beers. "If we can add that service, which was lost five years ago, that would be big and we’re certainly taking that into account."

Overall, Board members did not discuss which option they were leaning toward at the Sept. 9 meeting. Singer said members will share their opinions at the Sept. 30 meeting where they are expected to make a decision.

This will give the district time to come up with the new routes for the 2026-27 school year and then go out to bid sometime in January.

"I want to be clear, there are going to be challenges that are going to be associated with any of our options," said Singer. "And there are numerous considerations that go into this decision. I don’t think any of the considerations, any of the hardships, or the way it's going to impact people is taken for granted, either by this Board or the administration. I think the Board and administration are just trying to do what is best for our students in our district and trying to find the options that are most viable for us."

Watch the full presentation on school start times below:

Later School Start Times In NJ

The later school start times discussion in New Jersey began around 2013 when the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that teenagers in particular should start school later to ensure they get enough sleep.

This prompted some school districts such as Bernards Township and Princeton to push back start times.

In 2022, some legislators began to push a new bill that would move high school start times to no earlier than 8:30 a.m.

The new bill (A3816), sponsored by Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex) and Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth), had initially been proposed to go into effect at the start of the 2024-25 school year. The legislation would not impact elementary and middle school students. Read More: NJ High Schools Could Start At 8:30 A.M. If This New Bill Passes

However, the state mandate of school start times was not favored in New Jersey. The New Jersey School Boards Association said school start times are a matter best left to local school boards in response to community needs. Read More: State Mandate Of School Start Times Not Favored In New Jersey

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