Ridgefield Parents Take Opposition to Later Start Times Online

RIDGEFIELD, CT — Parents who are opposed to an initiative that would implement later school start times have taken their crusade online.

The "Reverse the School Start Time Initiative" boasts 550 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon. It was begun Monday, and has a goal of 1,000 petitioners.

The argument of the petitioners focuses primarily on the cost burden:

With this petition, we ask that the BOE cease its pursuit of the School Start Time initiative. We believe that if adopted, the budgetary cost consequences will result in adverse educational outcomes for students, teachers and the district. The financial cost to implement and annually support School Start Time will impede the district’s ability to invest in our current initiatives as well as prevent exploration of future ones.

The Board of Education voted to initiate a plan for later start times in an Ocober 2017 meeting, beginning with the start of the 2019-20 school year. However, the board has yet to finalize a schedule. Different scenarios floated all have different costs, with bottom lines ranging from around $434,391 for start times that would return the schools to a three-tier busing system they had in 2008 and requiring five more buses, to an estimated $1.8 million on the higher end.