To the editor:

Last week, there was a letter to the editor that singled me out. The letter was discussing school start time. I was surprised the letter addressed me directly instead of the entire five members of the school committee.  

While I did vote no on the original proposal that passed, I have done nothing to stop the implementation of new start times for the Barrington Public Schools.

The start time subcommittee led us to a transportation study and an analysis of before- and after-school care. These are real issues for the students and parents. We have the results to work with and that’s a great step forward. Additionally, we need to address the impact and potential costs to our students’ extra-curricular activities. As always, I want to know the full budgetary effect. That’s our responsibility to all the people in our community.

We need to have better communication with the public about start time change. The administration is working on the implementation plan for start time change. All the members of the school committee will be involved in evaluating the policy, not just me.

John Alessandro

Barrington

Editor’s note: Though we do not publish letters from candidates during the election season, we allowed Mr. Alessandro to write in direct response to last week’s letter, focusing only on the criticisms raised against him and to clarify his position.