Online Survey Studies Input On New Canaan School Start Times

NEW CANAAN, CT — New Canaan Public Schools has opened up its online survey about school start times to the full community, in an effort to gather more input before a final decision is reached by the Board of Education. The survey can be viewed by clicking here; it will be live until May 10.

According to district officials, the survey provides a number of school start and end time scenarios for review, followed by questions that ask what, if any, impact each option would have on aspects of a student's experience.

Schools Superintendent Dr. Bryan Luizzi tells Patch that more than 2,000 parents, students and staff members have already given their input after receiving an email about the survey.

"We wanted parents to respond to the unique link that they received in their emails, and reminders to parents will be sent out this week," Luizzi said. "The community link is designed for those who didn’t receive the unique link. Research uses 10-20 percent as a guide for response rates. We're hoping to be above those numbers."

Last month during a Board of Education meeting, many parents offered their support for later start times primarily to help with overall student health. Currently, New Canaan High School starts at 7:30 a.m. and the elementary and middle schools a little later.

Though student health is of the utmost importance, implementing later start times could cost the district between $200,000 and $1.2 million, Luizzi said.

While a final decision has not been reached, if New Canaan adopted later start times, the district would join a growing number of Fairfield County communities to go that route, including Greenwich. At the other end of the spectrum, Ridgefield approved later start times and then reversed course and decided against it.

Depending on which direction the New Canaan board decides to go, it would be a while before such a change would be implemented.

"The Board of Education is planning to give feedback and guidance to the administration at its meeting in June," Luizzi told Patch. "Additionally, at that meeting the BOE may identify a 'preferred' scenario, which the administration would further develop over the summer. For planning and organizational purposes, a change to school start and end times would occur no sooner than the 2020-21 school year."

Click here to view the online school start times survey.