The Westford School Committee unanimously voted in favor of delaying school start times for Westford Public Schools (WPS) at their meeting on Monday, Feb. 3. Starting in the 2025-26 school year, WA’s start time will be delayed by 25 minutes, beginning at 8:00 a.m. and ending at 2:20 p.m.
Both middle schools, Blanchard and Stony Brook, and the 3-5 elementary schools, Abbot, Day, and Crisafulli, will also be delayed by 25 minutes. However, K-2 schools Miller, Robinson, and Nabnasset will only be delayed by 5 minutes, meaning they will start at 9:10 a.m. and end at 3:15 p.m.
The School Start Times Subcommittee has been working on this proposal since Oct. 2023, and since then has had numerous meetings, conducted extensive research, as well as worked with WA’s Student Advisory Committee (SAC) for student feedback.
“I do think that the research supports this, and there’s been so much hard work that’s been done to do this in a way that is thoughtful and economical and works for kids and families,” school committee member Marisol Garcia said.
Through this process, the subcommittee has received many comments issuing concerns with the proposal, such as changes to WA’s sports’ timings, childcare, and bus routes or transportation in general.
WA Athletics
In assessing the changes that would occur to WA teams due to the shift in the start time, Athletics Director Jeff Bunyon has determined the shift to be manageable.
Because many other districts in the Dual County League (DCL) have already implemented later start times and successfully adapted their schedules, Bunyon believes that there would be minimal impact on sports schedules.
A large area of concern was the impact of the change in schedule on off-site facility usage, which would involve the swim, ice hockey, and golf teams. However, Bunyon has spoken to each of the facilities’ directors and has been informed that they can accommodate the change while maintaining the same amount of practice time. The only reduction is for one team’s Friday practice by around 10 to 15 minutes. Additionally, none of these adjustments to facility usage would create a cost increase according to Bunyon.
Childcare
The main concern that many residents share is that with the shift in start times, the timing of the Early Arrival Program for 3-5 students would also shift to align with the delay. This may be an issue for families with working parents, however the School Committee has not finalized whether there would be a shift in the Early Arrival timing or not.
Committee chair Valery Young spoke in favor of keeping the timing of the Early Arrival Program the same to ensure that challenges to working families could be mitigated. She also proposed that the financial subcommittee evaluate any potential to change the fee format for the program from a flat rate of $500 for the full year to breaking it down into pieces to give families more flexibility.
“It could really be saving a handful of families that don’t have any wiggle room, and want to know that their kid is at school,” Young said.
Additionally, Young brought up the concern of middle schoolers still needing supervision in the mornings, and Early Arrival not being available if their family schedule requires them to be dropped off earlier.
Superintendent Christopher Chew, however, worries that both an Early Arrival Program at the middle schools as well as a shift in timing of the established Early Arrival Program would cause an increase in costs. This would be because the staff hours would increase and the Early Arrival Program is already difficult to staff.
“As a former middle school principal myself, I will say that will definitely be a cost increase because you would have to supervise [the students] and I wouldn’t recommend that we do that,” Chew said. “[…] Just as a district, it’s difficult for us to staff the early morning piece. Some buildings it’s more difficult than in other buildings. I totally appreciate the concern, and I appreciate us considering it, but that’s one of the things that as a district, that in itself is a challenge.”
Bus and Transport Logistics
With this new schedule change, the bus routes will merge, and the K-5 students will be riding on the bus together,. School committee members stated that bus drivers will continue to enforce the same practices and expectations as before, such as having younger students sitting closer to the front.
Additionally, in reference to the concern of cost increases due to the change in buses, Clear stated that the costs will not increase because there are no additional routes being added. This is because most K-5 buses are currently running the same route twice, by first picking up 3-5, then K-2.
Because of the merging of K-2 and 3-5 students onto one bus, there will be changes occurring to the arrivals and dismissals of the schools. For Abbot and Nabnasset, as well as Crissafulli and Robinson, in the morning, all K-5 students will board the bus together at their assigned bus stop. After completing the route, the bus will drive to the 3-5 school and unload the older students. Then, the bus will travel to the K-2 school and the younger students will be dropped off. In the afternoon, dismissal will occur first at the 3-5 schools, after which the bus will travel to the sister K-2 school. Once all students have boarded, the bus will begin the route.
Due to distance between Day and Miller, the bus routes will remain separate, with one bus for Miller students and a different bus for Day students.
For Abbot and Nabnasset, there will be a transition period of approximately 20 minutes between when the buses drop off students at each school. However, because of change to the proximity of Crisafulli and Robinson, that 20 minute transition period will not exist for those schools. According to Chew, in conversations with the Crisafulli and Robinson principals, it can be anticipated that Robinson will have a 9 a.m. start time, instead of the adjusted 9:10 a.m. start, and end time of 3:05 p.m.
“The simplest way to think about this is, a parked bus full of kids is not a good idea,” Young said. “Everybody agrees with that. So we’re going to do our best, and principals are on board, to minimize as much as possible.”
With the distance between Crisafulli and Robinson, as well as Abbot and Nabnasset, there is a possibility of having a 5 to 10 minute change in some elementary school start times, depending on if there are issues with the current plan. The start times will be reviewed by the elementary school principals by the end of September, and if changes need to be made, a notice will be given to families and students.
Currently, because of bus driver shortages and other logistical issues, DEE Buses have been dropping WA students off earlier in the mornings. The School start times subcommittee and Dr. Chew have had many conversations with DEE buses and are working to rectify the situation as soon as possible. Clear, after having conversations with WA Principal Dan Twomey, suggested that 7:40 A.M. would be an appropriate time for buses to drop students off.
Workload Impact
The current homework policy created by the School Committee supports the benefit of homework where it is purposeful and appropriate. When discussing the impact the delay will have on student workload, Young stated that the committee can decide to review the policy to ensure it continues to make sense with the schedule changes.
“[Delayed start times] is a tool in the tool box, this is not some magic fix that gets kids their perfect sleep time,” Young said. “There are things that we can see as other levers, like there were concerns about activity pick up times, those are all things that I think we can continue to finesse. That’s our homework policy, we can decide to review that and see if that makes sense based on what we’re hearing.”
Delayed start times have been a topic of discussion for several years, however, because of the benefits that it has on mental and physical health of students. School committee member Sean Kelly believes that it is important to prioritize the social emotional health of Westford students.
“This has been on this committee’s radar for many, many years, […] this is kind of the tail end of a lot of social emotional policies that this committee has put into place to provide the best educational environment possible for our students to thrive in,” Kelly said. “[…] At the end of the day, our priority is and always has to be the education that we are providing to our children. And the research suggests that this will aid in providing that. […] I think it’s time, I’m ready to do it, I’m excited to see how it plays out.”
