Sag Harbor Schools To Present Ideas For Later Start Times

Photo: Google Maps

Recently, the Sag Harbor School District presented an idea to implement later start times at Sag Harbor Elementary School and Pierson Middle/High School.

Currently, Sag Harbor Elementary School class time runs from 8:35 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. and Pierson Middle/High School class times run from 7:25 a.m. to 2:26 p.m.

The district has laid out six later start time options to present at the next school board meeting.

For Sag Harbor Elementary the options were:

• 8:45 a.m. to 3:20 p.m.
• 8:35 a.m. to 3:10 p.m.
• 8:30 a.m. to 3:10 p.m.
• 7:35 a.m. to 2:10 p.m.
• 8:45 a.m. to 3:20 p.m.
• 9:00 a.m. to 3:35 p.m.

For Pierson Middle/High School the options were:

• 8:00 a.m. to 3:01 p.m.
• 8:00 a.m. to 3:01 p.m.
• 8:20 a.m. to 3:21 p.m.
• 8:20 a.m. to 3:21 p.m.
• 7:35 a.m. to 2:36 p.m.
• 7:45 a.m. to 2:46 p.m.

According to a presentation from a previous school board meeting, the district hopes to implement this plan because in order to let students get more sleep.

“Research on student’s need for sleep has been mounting and science has been advocating for parents and schools to shift their practices to support student’s sleep patterns,” the presentation reads.

However, the district also listed off some of the challenges to implementing later start times. One of the main issues involve the buses.

“We are at maximum capacity in our current bus lot,” the presentation reads. “We would require an additional lot to store additional buses.”

Additionally, other issues include:

• Options 1 and 2 include a 3:01 p.m. dismissal time for the Middle/High School, which is the same time pre-kindergarten dismisses, which means the two schools would dismiss through the same exits, creating an unsafe environment for the younger students.
• Currently Pierson students arrive home first, which allows them to meet their younger siblings at the bus stop.
• The district would not be able to cover sports runs as often as we do without adding additional buses and drivers.
• If there are combined bus runs for K-12 students at dismissal, they would be loading students (which takes approximately 10 minutes) and then traveling to the other school to load the other students. This increases their bus riding time. In addition, the district has to comply with a 3 minute idle time law. During the winter months to busses and students will be cold.

The district will present the six options to the school board at the next meeting on Tuesday, December 9.

In addition, the district will host a public workshop for community members to comment and a survey will be sent out.

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