RHINEBECK >> School district officials expect it will be several months before enough information is known about how later school start times would affect classes, students and the district budget.
At a Board of Education meeting Tuesday, officials said reviews of bus and athletic schedules are among the factors that need to be considered.
“It’s important that we engage administrators, nurses, social workers, and a lot of people in our district … to get input and help us set parameters,” Trustee Diane Lyons said.
“The important thing is the transportation,” she said. “We’re going to get some information about costs and what it would mean if there’s anything in the contract with our bus company. We’re looking at several options. One would be a single run with (kindergarten through 12th grade) students; another would be flipping the (elementary start time) with the high school-middle school, and another option would be pushing all the start times a little bit later.”
High school and middle school classes currently begin a 7:30 a.m. while the elementary school has an 8:55 a.m. start time.
Board members began discussing a possible change in start times in September after reading a report that high school students perform better if they are able to sleep longer.
Lyons, who is part of a committee reviewing start times, said information will also be sought from parents after cost and academic impacts are evaluated.
“We want to engage a lot of members of the community as we go through this process,” she said.
“A big question that (the committee) had was how late is enough,” Lyons said. “Shifting the schedule a half-hour, does that make enough difference…because we really didn’t want to make a half-hour change if it really didn’t provide enough of a benefit.”
Phelan said there is no pressure to have recommendations in time for next year but would like to have information gathered quickly.
“We’re not in a foot-dragging mode, but we’re also not trying to throw something together by December,” he said. “We want to … hear from the people who are actually going to have to manage their organizational structure with any of these changes. I’m anticipating this is going to be a several-months process.”
