Dr. Bryan Luizzi

First Selectman Envisions New Road through Waveny Connecting NCHS to South Avenue

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Saying pipes will need to run to South Avenue from a planned power station behind New Canaan High School, the town’s highest elected official said he is in favor of laying that route by creating a new road through a wooded portion of Waveny Park. Such a road also would help ease traffic at the school—a hurdle in creating a workable busing system as part the district’s efforts to start high school later, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said during a press briefing last week. “We have to bring the pipes from the power plant behind the high school that we are going to build over to Saxe and the YMCA,” Moynihan said during the briefing held Thursday in his Town Hall. “It would be logical to bring it through that area and it is not wetlands. It can be done.

News

School Start Times: Superintendent Floats Proposal To Start Elementary Schools Earlier, Followed by High School and Saxe

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Local elementary schools could start as early as 7:30 a.m., with New Canaan High School starting later in the morning and all of Saxe Middle School starting last, under a new proposal that Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi unveiled Monday night. Citing anecdotal evidence that younger children tend to tire in the afternoon, Luizzi said the proposed new system—suggested by New Canaan Public Schools Transportation Coordinator Roy Walder—could largely preserve the current and cost-effective three-tier busing system, though it also comes with tradeoffs. “I’m not going to say this is the scenario I am recommending yet, because there is more work to be done,” Luizzi told members of the Board of Education at their regular meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School and attended by about 25 parents. “But I want to share it with you because work is being done and continues to be done. The magnitude of the change—it moves everybody.

Board of Education

Consultant Presents Baseline Bus Service Costs for Starting School Later

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Pushing back the earliest school start times by 45 minutes—and doing so without significantly changing the day for those in kindergarten through sixth grade—would cost nearly $1.4 million annually, a consultant told the Board of Education last week. The added cost, which would bring the district’s total yearly busing expenses to about $4.6 million, represents the estimated 14 additional school buses that New Canaan would need to change its highly efficient, current system of three busing tiers down to two tiers, according to Mark Walsh of Walworth, N.Y.-based Transportation Advisory Services. 

Yet even if the Board of Ed wants to go in that direction, finding additional drivers to operate those buses likely would prove difficult, Walsh told the elected body at its regular meeting, held Nov. 19 at New Canaan High School. “You have been fortunate that you have been able to have a sufficient roster of drivers,” he said. “Part of it is because of the labor agreement that they have, and that labor agreement provides for a six-hour day.

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Letter: New Canaan Parents Voice Support for a Later School Start Time

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The New Canaan Board of Education is evaluating a change to school start times to allow our older, sleep-deprived students more time for sleep. A group of New Canaan parents created the Healthy School Start Times website to inform parents about this important health concern and to collect signatures on a petition asking the BoE to prioritize changing start times. Over 700 New Canaan families have signed the petition and commented on why they consider the issue to be a priority. Some of the comments are included here and the rest can be found on the website. We hope New Canaanites will read what their neighbors are saying and add their own voice to the petition:

“I have two boys who are currently in elementary school and will go through the entire NCPS system.

Board of Education

Op-Ed: Let’s Move Quickly To Adopt Healthier School Start Times

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Dear Board of Education Members,

We are part of a growing group of more than 600 parents of adolescents or soon-to-be-adolescents in the New Canaan Public School system who are concerned that children in Grades 7-12 begin their school day at 7:30 a.m., a start time that doctors have told us is harmful to an adolescent’s health. It is time for New Canaan to prioritize fixing this problem. Later School Start Times Improve Teen Health

Most adolescents are chronically sleep-deprived and early school start times are a big part of the problem, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All three medical organizations recommend that 7th-to-12th-graders start no earlier than 8:30 a.m.

Teens have trouble falling asleep before 11 p.m. due to a biological shift in circadian rhythms that occurs in all adolescents; they are simply not sleepy earlier. With a 7:30 a.m. start time, the window for sleep is not long enough for them to get the required 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep.