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Date: 2/16/2022
EASTHAMPTON – During a School Committee meeting on Feb. 8, Superintendent Allison LeClair recommended against swapping start times for high school and elementary school until students and families feel more established with the new Mountain View School.
“We recommend making no significant changes next year … keep the status quo,” said LeClair, regarding changes to start times. “This will give everyone time to acclimate to the new school.”
The committee talked about this during a meeting last summer before the school year, and the district sent out a survey to students, staff, community members, and families to see what people thought of this idea. LeClair presented the survey findings to the committee on Feb. 8.
According to LeClair, 550 people responded to the survey in all, 56 percent of which decided that they would like to keep the current start times of 7:35 a.m. for high school and 8:45 a.m. for elementary school. Respondents liked the idea of high schoolers sleeping later and elementary students starting earlier, but they were not agreeable to elementary students starting as early as 7:35 a.m., mainly because it is too early. “Students, staff, and families do not seem to be in favor of a shift at this time,” said LeClair.
Additionally, respondents were concerned that older students would not be available for childcare due to a later start time, and they also felt that an earlier start time for elementary students would create a longer afternoon for childcare. The later end time for high school students would also affect when athletic events start.
“Childcare was a big concern,” said LeClair, regarding what respondents would not like about the change in times. “People felt that they wanted things to stay the way that they were because they didn’t want such a big shift.”
While pursuing this input, the district also had to consider the possible changes to busing and the Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative (LPVEC)’s Career Technical Education Center (CTEC) program, and how those amenities could be affected by a change in start and end times. Under the current high school model, around 40 students who choose to take up a vocational field spend half the day at Easthampton High School and half the day at LPVEC in West Springfield. According to LeClair, LPVEC said that they would not consider adjusting their start times because they generally operate under a traditional high school schedule.
As of right now, 230 K-4 students qualify to ride the bus, but with the new Mountain View school, that number will increase to 536 K-5 students, which is a 125 percent growth. The district plans to add four more buses to accommodate this. The new buses would allow the district to “minimally transport all students that would qualify under [the district’s] current policy, keeping the same time schedule.” The start times currently at Mountain View are 8:05 a.m. for middle school, and 8:40 a.m. for elementary.
In the narrative section of the survey, families suggested the possibility of having the same start time for both middle schoolers and elementary school students at Mountain View, and that would require six extra buses, instead of four. LeClair said they may consider that option in the future.
LeClair also presented the option of making Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School the district’s primary vocational school if start and end times were to change, but the School Committee would have to make a vote on this decision, and the cost differential between the two schools is significant.
Currently, tuition for Smith Vocational is $18,679 per year per student, compared to $13,309 per year per student at LPVEC, and the district would have to incur an additional $209,430 a year for four years. Students would also have to spend a full day at Smith rather than a half day, thus losing a connection with their high school in Easthampton.
Mayor Nicole LaChapelle agreed that LPVEC is a better monetary deal at face value but noted that the half-day model with LPVEC creates an “awkward” schedule. “I would request that we review our preferred vocational school,” she said, adding that there are number of Smith Vocational alums working in the area who could offer support for Smith students, if the district went that route.
Despite a lack of interest in changing school times, LeClair did say that the district could explore moving Mountain View School to the same start time after one year of acclimating everyone to the new school.
“The shift of simply flipping high school and elementary school is a little bit too drastic for all the parties involved,” said LeClair. “So, we need to come up with other options, and we can’t really do that yet without the bus fleet and without having gone through at least a year at Mountain View to give people time to get acclimated with the new system.”