Barrington mulls later school start times, and their associated costs

Posted 12/10/15

Barrington High School may start each day at 7:45 a.m., but it's a lot earlier for students taking the bus.

According to the current bus schedule, a number of the high school morning pick-ups occur well before 7 a.m., and some are earlier …

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Barrington mulls later school start times, and their associated costs

Posted

Barrington High School may start each day at 7:45 a.m., but it's a lot earlier for students taking the bus.

According to the current bus schedule, a number of the high school morning pick-ups occur well before 7 a.m., and some are earlier than 6:30. In fact, Bus 3's first stop of the day is slated for 6:26 a.m. at the corner of Ferry Lane and Blount Circle.

That is just too early, said Barrington Superintendent of Schools Michael Messore.

The school district leader said he has long supported later morning pickups for high school students, and is in favor of later start times at the high school and middle school.

"It's definitely an improvement for addressing the health and wellness of the students," Mr. Messore said. "This is in our (the district's) strategic plan… Whatever we do, we do for the health and wellness of the students."

Barrington school officials have, for years, been trying to push back the start times at the high school and middle school. While the high school currently starts at 7:45, the middle school is even earlier at 7:40 a.m. Most recently, Mr. Messore presented two new start time options — 8:15 a.m. or 8:30.

Members of the Barrington School Committee are likely to vote on a new start time at their Jan. 7 meeting.

"I think we're very close," said Mr. Messore.

Not everyone in town has supported pushing back the school start times. Some who oppose the change say that a later start time will have a detrimental impact on after-school activities, such as interscholastic league athletics.

Some officials had supported a 9 a.m. (or later) start time at the secondary schools, which would have forced some sports teams to hold practices before school.

Mr. Messore said the 8:15 a.m. start time option would include a 2:45 dismissal. The 8:30 a.m. start time has a 3 p.m. dismissal.

"The logistics become a little difficult," said Mr. Messore, about scheduling after-school activities that work with the 3 p.m. dismissal. "I think the other school districts will find ways to work with us."

Two discussions

A Barrington school official said Wednesday, Dec. 9, that the school committee is really dealing with two discussions: Start times and transportation times, although the two topics are often intertwined.

He said the district intends to reduce travel times for students to less than 30 minutes, and also plans to eliminate pickups before 7 a.m. and drop-offs after dusk. The district contracted with a transportation consultant which said that additional buses — five, to be exact — were needed to affect the changes.

The transportation shift is, however, married to start times, said the official. He said that while the district could decide to bring on more buses to reduce travel times without changing the school start times, the department could not alter start times without bringing on more buses.

A member of the school committee questioned whether there would be an appetite for adding more buses without gaining the benefits of later school start times.

Options

1. The committee could vote to move the high school and middle school start time to 8:15 a.m., and pay an estimated $931,000 in total school transportation costs: $537,000 in existing transportation costs, plus $394,000 for additional buses, monitors and associated costs.

2. The committee could vote to move the high school and middle school start time to 8:30 a.m. and pay an estimated $966,000: $537,000 in existing transportation costs, plus $429,000 for additional buses, monitors and associated costs.

Barrington School Committee Chairwoman Kate Brody said it is possible that at the Jan. 7 meeting, a school committee member could make a motion to take a different action, even one that would call for no change to school start times. She said the Dec. 17 school committee will include time to further discuss the issue.

"At this time, the two options — at 8:15 and 8:30 — are the preferred start times," she said.

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