WILMINGTON, MA — School Superintendent Mary DeLai and her administrative team have begun exploring the possibility of drastically changing start times at all Wilmington schools based on the overwhelming educational, scientific and medical research that supports a later start time for older students.
“Director of Administration and Finance Paul Ruggiero is working diligently to assess what transportation and logistical impacts that would arise if we switched to a later start time for both the high school and middle school, and an earlier start time for the elementary schools,” DeLai told the Wilmington School Committee during its Wednesday night meeting. “We’d almost be flipping the current model on its head.”
DeLai also hoped that under a new schedule, there would be better start time alignment between both sides of town, so that there’d be identical or similar start times between a school and its cross-town counterpart, like the North and the West, for example.
“The plan would be that in the fall, once the analysis and scenarios have been completed, we would hold a whole host of community forums on changing school start times across the district,” said DeLai. “There will be lots of opportunities for parents, families and students to get engaged in this conversation.”
DeLai said she is very passionate about the research surrounding school start times and is particularly concerned about the current Middle School and High School times.
DeLai explained that it has been athletics and after school activities that have been the main obstacle to establishing a later start time at the high school.
As a result, superintendents in the Middlesex League are being asked to sign a joint statement that would agree with the following goals:
- Each district would have its high school day begin between 8am and 8:30am by the start of the 2018-2019 school year; and
- Each district would schedule sports so that students do not routinely miss academic time.
The Wilmington School Committee unanimously authorized Superintendent DeLai to sign the statement.
“If not every Middlesex League district agrees, this would never move forward,” cautioned DeLai. “This doesn’t commit us, but if all the districts don’t sign on, we’d be wasting our time.”
The Middlesex League consists of Arlington, Belmont, Burlington, Lexington, Melrose, Reading, Stoneham, Wakefield, Watertown, Wilmington, Winchester and Woburn.
Burlington, which is spearheading the effort, and Stoneham have already signed the statement.
Read the entire statement below:
Joint Statement on Later Start Times for High Schools
The purpose of this collaborative statement is not to make a case for later high school start times. The research is clear on this topic that later start times best support the social and emotional needs of our high school students. The Middlesex League Superintendents collectively wanted to express our clear support for later high school start times. Our intention is to commit to a deadline and to the necessary consensus building required to make a change in long-standing practice. Doing what is right for adolescents will mean changing adult schedules and behaviors. Ultimately, the choice to change will distill down to what communities value most.
To this end, our League goals are as follows:
- High School start times between 8:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. for all Middlesex League High Schools by the start of the 2018-2019 school year. (Current start times range from 7:30 a.m.-8:00 a.m.)
- After-school competitions will be scheduled so that students do not routinely miss academic time.
The expression of our intentions and our timetable should provide ample opportunity to address all stakeholder concerns and to reallocate existing funding or commit to the new funding that may be needed to implement later start times. Moreover, by setting a timeline for Fall 2018, we believe districts, families, and organizations that oversee athletic competitions, academic competitions and other student activities will have sufficient time to prepare for a change that will benefit all our students.
We hope this joint statement is the first of many as we work together across our respective communities to implement practices that are in the best interest of children.
Watch the School Committee meeting, courtesy of Wilmington Community Television, below. Discussion on the school start times begins at 49:50 and runs until 54:15.
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