Confusion, Questions Emerge During Ridgewood Schools Discussion Of Late Start Survey

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — Confusion, claims of conflicting information and unanswered questions emerged during an hour-long discussion of school start time and scheduling survey results at Monday's Ridgewood Board of Education meeting.

Lauren Gonzales, K12 Insight Director of Research, presented on results of the survey designed with district leadership that was administered to parents and guardians, staff members, students in grades 6 through 12 and community members; a total of nearly 5,000 responses were received. Data and perspectives were collected on school start and end times to inform possible next steps on alternative scheduling, Gonzales said in her report.

Gonzales said in a summary of the data that students seemed to favor later start times, citing advantages in terms of well-being and improved mental health, and that a majority of respondents said the current end time is "ideal" or works well. She also noted that data revealed more communication is desired in terms of what a different schedule would actually look like.

Board member Saurabh Dani said he would have liked to see more analysis of the data from K12 Insight's perspective.

"I think the purpose of the data was to collect perspectives to see how parents felt overall about a schedule change. From what we are seeing, parents, especially high school parents, are open to having the change but need to see more information about what that schedule would look like," Gonzales said.

"That's all?" Dani said in response. "I'm at a loss. I was expecting more from you guys in terms of suggestions, recommendations and follow-ups."

Board President Hyunju Kwak then joined the conversation.

"This data is a starting point," Kwak said. "But where would you guide us with these initial data points?"

"I would create a plan of what a proposed schedule would look like, and think about how we can address the concerns of the community," Gonzales said. "If we do want to change the schedule, what accommodations need to be made to make sure it is feasible for the community?"

Kwak later said that she did not believe that specifics were "ironed out" in the survey, and K-12 Insight's research team provided only a generic overview of the general concept. Also, not woven into conversations about later start times, she said, is a possible increase in transportation costs for the district.

Assistant Superintendent Stacie Poelstra said she is not convinced, based on the data, that community buy-in for later start times is as strong as maybe the district anticipated that it would be. In her assessment of the data, she said she expects there will be people happy with the change and people who are not.

"Regardless of which way we decide to go with this, we have to be prepared to help people who are not happy work through this," Poelstra said, adding that there were preliminary cost estimates on bus service changes.

Data appeared to show, Kwak said, that a possible pushback of school start times might make the schedules more manageable for middle and high school students as it relates to sleep duration and mental health.

But a later start time "could mean 8:30 a.m. or 8:10 a.m.," and feedback on either could vary, she said, adding that the question of a delayed start time is generic.

Dani and another board member Sheila Brogan asked for further breakdown of data. Brogan also suggested that the district needs to do a better job about conversing with the public about this topic, and perhaps even speak with schools that have delayed start times to see the findings there.

"The reality is," Brogan said, "this is good homework to do and a good conversation to have to fill in what I feel are some blanks on this topic."