School start‑time forum draws mixed feedback; committee schedules formal vote for Feb. 3

The Westford School Committee held an extended public forum Jan. 21 on a proposed change to school start times that would move middle and high schools to an 8 a.m. start, shift grades 3–5 to about 8:50 a.m., and move kindergarten–grade 2 to about 9:10 a.m.

Public comment and staff input: Parents and students who spoke at the forum largely cited research supporting later start times for adolescents and described perceived mental-health and sleep benefits. A parent who works with teens described losing roughly 30 minutes of nightly sleep for many high schoolers and said a later start would help. Student advisory input (STACK) reported 432 student responses with roughly 69% favoring a later start for older students.

Concerns raised included: impact on after‑school athletics and external vendor schedules (skating rinks, pools, off‑site facilities), the possibility that some practices might move before school, bus ride durations and increased time students might spend waiting on buses, and effects on caregiver work schedules. Committee members said the district had surveyed community members (about 1,305 responses) and that the most-cited worries were athletics/activity impacts, caregiver scheduling, and elementary bus route length and behavior management.

Transportation and logistics: Transportation staff and building principals described current planning assumptions and said most off‑site athletic partners had told district athletics staff they could shift practice times later by the roughly 25–30 minute window being proposed. Transportation staff cautioned that some routes might show longer ride times in a worst‑case configuration (estimates provided in internal routing tests showed ranges up to about 40–50 minutes for specific routes if the full transition window were required), but they also noted those figures represented outer bounds and that route tweaks and sister‑school sequencing could reduce ride times substantially.

Principals noted differing local situations: Robinson and Chris Foley schools are geographically close and may require only a small adjustment; Miller and Day are more distant and could need larger routing buffers. Principals and transportation staff said they will continue to collaborate to minimize idle wait time and to consider staggered elementary schedules between sister schools to reduce bus idle time.

Committee action and next steps: After hearing public comment and staff briefings, the committee set a schedule to take a formal vote on Feb. 3 and asked administration to continue route modeling, confirm discussions with off‑site facilities, and provide further information about expected ride‑time impacts. Members also requested that the administration consider temporary leniency in tardy policies during the transition and that the committee continue public communications. The committee directed staff to publish the community survey results and to collect any additional email comments into the public record so they can be part of the Feb. 3 deliberation.