Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said Monday that starting New Canaan High School later could have some bus scheduling advantages over the current system.
The Board of Education decided at its June meeting to pursue a plan which would see all three elementary schools beginning at 7:45 a.m., the high school starting at 8:20 a.m., and all of Saxe Middle School beginning at 9:05 a.m.
The way buses are currently staged, they all start in the southern part of town, to pick up and drop off children from Saxe Middle School and the High School, Luizzi said. However, starting with the elementary schools could mean that some buses don’t need to come to the southern part of town.
“We do believe that we’ll find some time and some efficiency by having the elementary schools go first,” he said at the Board’s regular meeting, held in the Wagner Room at NCHS.
He added, “They can start picking up high school kids who live in the west part of town and then go straight to the high school, so I think that can save us a little bit of time. A similar scenario may apply in the afternoons, Luizzi said.
Despite these potential bus route efficiencies, Luizzi told the Board that the identified school start and finish times might have to be adjusted by five or 10 minutes, once officials have determined the logistics of bus routing.
“There are several variables that factor into the analysis,” he said, adding that “we’re optimistic, but we also have to be realistic about the constraints that we have.”
The idea of changing school start times, formally proposed nearly two years ago, has been divisive. A survey sent out to middle- and high-school students, parents and guardians, school staff and community members was inconclusive, according to results shared at a presentation last month. Board of Ed members are not in complete agreement on whether they’re ready to give district administrators guidance.
Luizzi also said that progress is being made on putting together an advisory committee, the convening of which has been discussed since last summer. The committee will investigate the start time possibility favored by the Board, and share feedback with the Board, Luizzi said.
According to Luizzi, the committee will be “as inclusive as possible.”
“What we’re talking about is a change for every single student staff everybody here so we want to make sure that all the voices are in the room for that conversation,” he said.
Due to its inclusivity, the committee is likely to be “a large group—maybe 35 or 40 folks,” Luizzi said. Meetings would also be open to the public. Acknowledging the potential pitfalls of large committees, Luizzi told the Board that officials were considering using a facilitator for the committee’s meetings.
“By doing that we think that we can get to pros and cons of scenarios and you have a pretty rich discussion that answers a number of questions,” he said.
Luizzi said that officials plan to send out invitations to prospective committee members before the the Board’s next regular meeting.
“Ultimately we’re going to stay focused on our goal, which is optimising the school schedule for all of our student K-12, and that will be sort of our north star as we go through and have this conversation,” Luizzi said.
“All of Saxe at 9:05 a.m.” I think that’s a problem, if it means changing the current system and instead putting 5th and 6th graders on the same buses as 7th and 8th graders. The difference between 5th graders and 8th graders is profound. Just one more non-financial opinion to factor in to the decision.
I guess that the anticpated”bus scheduling advantages” don’t exist now that we know that new plan will cost an additional 1 million dollars. Since we are in the hyperbole phase of town funding it’s a good time to ask what else may be different than expected? Will early elementary school start times be a deterrent for young families considering New Canaan?