No Change To Early Start Time For South Brunswick High School

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — At Thursday night’s Board of Education meeting, South Brunswick School District superintendent Scott Feder said the class timings for high school students will not be changed.

Recently, the school district welcomed back students for in-person learning in the hybrid model.

High school students now begin classes at 7:30 a.m. instead of 9 a.m., which was the schedule during all-remote learning.

A petition by high school senior Emily Peterson urged district officials to keep the 9 a.m. start time. The petition was signed by over 650 people.

Addressing the matter, Feder said that even in the past he explained why it wasn’t possible to keep start time at 9 a.m. once schools reopened.

“I've explained it many times that it was not possible in our current state, due to transportation and the legal requirement of the board to transport students,” he said.

Feder said the start time was currently one of the “big topics” in the district, with students and families expressing their preference for a later start time. But he said there was nothing the district could do now.

Feder said that a few parents have expressed their displeasure with board members over the issue, which at times got “nasty.”

“There's just no reason for that,” he said. “The board members are not trying to do something. We are in a pandemic and we are trying to manage all of this.”

He said the 9 a.m. start time was a “gift for half of the school year,” but wouldn’t be possible at the moment.

However, he acknowledged the research and reasoning behind a later start time, and said it’s a discussion the school district was willing to have for the future.

“It's a great conversation. It's a great topic for us to consider,” he said.

The superintendent said a district official will be working with the community and the faculty on “what's possible, while we provide an outline to get us started.”

“We'll hear more about that in the coming weeks and months,” he said.

In the past few months, two petitions did the rounds ahead of in-person classes urging district officials to stick to the 9 a.m. schedule for high schoolers.

Both petitions cited studies that showed teens perform better at school which had a later start time.

Thank you for reading. Have a correction or news tip? Email sarah.salvadore@patch.com

Get breaking news alerts on your phone with our app. Download here. Sign up to get Patch emails so you don't miss out on local and statewide news