The school start times subcommittee presented new developments in their campaign to delay Westford Academy's start time to 8:00 a.m. at the school committee meeting on Monday, February 12. The subcommittee, comprised of vice chair Kathryn Clear, secretary Bill McDonald, and school committee member Chris...

Getting up at 5:30 a.m. for school is really hard. I know by this point, WA students say they are used to it, but are they really? It is hard to get used to getting up so early while it is still dark out, and running on five hours of sleep. As of late, there have been ongoing discussions on how American...

New start times for the 2021-2022 school year have been proposed in order to lift budget constraints in Westford Public School district. The Westford School Committee will vote on the final timings at their meeting on March 8. This vote will decide whether or not Westford Academy's current start time...

New timings based on parental feedback have been proposed for the 4-tier bus system meant to alleviate budget constraints, according to WA principal James Antonelli. Additionally, a pilot schedule for Westford Academy has been devised to serve as an effective transition back into school for the next...

Because the school’s increase in funds was only about 1% this year as compared to the 3% average of previous years, going from a three tier system of 36 buses to a four tier system of 30 buses will save Westford Public Schools $444,174. According to Olsen, this bus cut will ensure the same high quality...

On Wednesday, January 22, Superintendent Bill Olsen and Director of School Finance Ingrid Nilsson held a meeting with the School Committee to talk about the cost and logistics later start times, and generally concluded that later start times would likely not be feasible during the 2020-2021 school year. This...

With a large number of students coming to class sleep-deprived, the school committee has been debating the idea of later school start times as a solution to this continuous problem. I believe that if Westford Academy were to implement a later starting time, it would be a step in the right direction...

For the past two years, the School Committee has been trying to implement later start times for the entire Westford school district. Their main purpose in doing so is to relieve Westford Academy student stress and increase the amount of sleep high school students get. While I appreciate them trying to...

For the past two years, the school committee has been proposing later school times. They hope to implement this change next year but there have been many factors that they must address before they execute the plan. When the change is put in place, WA and the middle schools would start at 8:05 AM and...