Debate Over School Start Times Continues In New Canaan

NEW CANAAN, CT — The debate over whether to change public school start times in New Canaan will continue this fall with the creation of a new advisory committee to further study various scenarios for when to begin and end the school day.

The debate over school start times in New Canaan has gone on for a couple of years, and centers primarily on improving overall student health by allowing for more time to sleep.

In the spring, the school district conducted an online survey on the issue, and on the general question of whether school start times should be changed, the responses were as follows, according to a recent presentation to the Board of Education:

• 54 percent of parents supported a change; 42 percent did not.
• 42 precent of students supported a change; 52 percent did not.
• 23 percent of staff supported a change; 72 percent were opposed.
• 40 percent of community responses supported change; 53 percent did not.

Under one of the five possible scenarios being considered, the elementary schools would start the day first, followed by the high school and then middle school:

7:45-2:15 South School, East School, West School

8:20-2:55 New Canaan High School
9:05-3:35 Saxe Middle School

Another possible schedule offers this change:

8:00-2:35 New Canaan High School
8:45-3:15 South School, East School, West School
9:30-4:00 Saxe Middle School

7:30-2:05 New Canaan High School and Saxe Middle School (Grades 7-8)
8:20-2:55 Saxe Middle School (Grades 5-6) and South School
9:05-3:35 East School and West School

If any changes are ever adopted, they would not take effect until the 2020-21 school year.

Several school districts have adopted later start times or have considered it, including Greenwich and Ridgefield which dropped a plan to start classes later.