The Schools Start Times Subcommittee presented a plan to delay WPS start times at the Dec. 16 school committee meeting. Their proposal introduced a 2-tier system with two new primary start times: one at 8:00 a.m for WA and the middle schools, and the other ranging from 8:50 to 9:10 for the elementary schools.
With this system, WA, Blanchard, and Stony Brook middle schools would be delayed by 25 minutes, running from 8:00 a.m. to 2:20 p.m. Similarly, Day, Crisafulli, and Abbot elementary schools would gain an extra 25 minutes, running from 8:50 to 2:55 p.m. Miller, Robinson, and Nabnasset elementary schools would be delayed 5 minutes from the current start time, starting at 9:10 a.m and ending at 3:15 p.m.
In addition, this plan would merge bus routes between Nabnasset and Abbot, and those between Robinson and Crisafulli schools.
“There was only one scenario,” school committee member Kathryn Clear said. “Any of the other scenarios that we looked at, even 5 or 10 minutes later, would require more busses, and therefore, more costs. […] So, this was the only viable one we could dig into.”
As with past years, the proposal aims to prioritize mental health and wellness of students, reducing pressure and increasing sleep. This comes from research supporting that later start times help adolescent students get closer to the recommended 8-10 hours of sleep a day with significant mental and physical benefits.
“If our students’ emotional well-being and their ability to perform is really tied to the amount of sleep they get […] and if it’s as important as the research suggests, then we have to do our best to decouple it from any budgetary decisions,” school committee member Sean Kelly said. “Because I think the last time that something like this was around, […] the benefit of it got lost because it was being sold as something that could help the district financially as opposed to helping our students mentally.”
Most recently, a plan for delayed start times was proposed in 2021, but ultimately failed due to concerns about the inconveniences of a 4-tier start time system despite potential savings. Meanwhile, a key reason behind the failure of a 2019 proposal was that it would increase transportation expenses. However, this year’s plan is cost neutral, and as a result, is expected to be far more feasible within Westford’s current fiscal climate.
As an additional consideration, Clear shared that creating more consistent start times for grades K-5 could help the district transition into Westford’s potential reconfiguration plans.
To gain a student perspective on delayed start times, the Student Advisory Committee has also shared a survey with WA students to be filled out in the upcoming weeks. A key concern is the impact of delaying extracurricular and sports after school.
“We would get out of school later, which means practices and meets would end later, leaving less time to do homework, and causing us to go to bed even later,” senior Rosey Deeks said. “Changing the start times would also cause [the swim team] to possibly lose practice time because we already have limited pool space for all of the members and teams that swim there. I think an extra 25 minutes in the morning isn’t worth the many problems later start times would cause.”
On the other hand, some students believe the extra sleep would outweigh the drawbacks of a later dismissal.
“I think a lot of other schools around us have delayed their start times and students have adapted. It would probably be good if we delayed our start times too because 7:35 a.m. is just too early in the morning,” senior Priyanka Rajaram said. “During first block, I feel like no one is really awake and everyone is half asleep or not paying attention.”
According to school committee member Bill MacDonald, the subcommittee is working to ensure that resulting impacts of later start times on both parents and students’ schedules do not go overlooked.
“We’ve had very in-depth discussion with the transportation company and athletic director [Jeff] Bunyon about athletics, facility, off-site rentals, and practice-schedules,” MacDonald said. “We’ve had some impassioned communications from student athletes and parents about those schedules […] and the cascading effects. All of this is being processed by the subcommittee.”
With merged bus routes, other concerns addressed included whether it is developmentally appropriate to have students in K-5 ride together and the potential of longer bus rides.
“That was something really important to us, that we didn’t essentially double the ride time for our students. […] The actual bus ride itself, that length of time isn’t really going to be impacted,” Clear said. “What’s added to it is the [school] stops, but it would only be one of the journeys.”
In the upcoming weeks, a community forum and webinar for public input will be scheduled in January and a community survey will be posted to the district website. A vote on the proposed recommendation is anticipated to be as early as Feb. 3.
“We don’t think this is the magic solution. It really is only a cog in the wheel of multiple things that can help improve the social emotional well-being of our students,” Clear said. “We’re not presenting this thinking that all of a sudden, we will have a whole 25 extra minutes of sleep and make a massive difference, but it’s another tool […] and another option that we have [to help students].”
