The change would mean later mornings for secondary students
By Mallie Jane Kim
After years of advocacy and discussion over shifting secondary school start times later, Three Village Board of Education settled on a framework to put forward for community input. If adopted, Ward Melville High School and the district’s two junior high schools — P.J. Gelinas and R.C. Murphy — would each start 35 minutes later than they currently do, at 7:40 a.m. and 8:15 a.m., respectively.
Any such adjustments would likely take place starting fall 2025, in tandem with the district’s plan to move sixth grade into junior high and ninth into the high school. To make the changes possible with the fewest added buses, the plan would mark a change for at least one elementary school. Currently, two schools start around 8:40 a.m. and three at 9:25. Under the proposed plan, only one elementary school could begin the day at the earlier time.
Three Village would have to find a bit over $1 million in other areas of the budget to accommodate the increased transportation costs incurred by a change in start times, according to district officials.
“That is the best that we came up with from both the dollar standpoint and also what seemed to work best,” said interim Deputy Superintendent Jeffrey Carlson at an Aug. 21 board meeting as he laid out the rationale for the plan. “It’s not going to make everybody thrilled, but it does a number of things that we were looking to do.”
District administrators and some board members have said for many months that they believe and agree with study results that indicate starting later is better for adolescent physical and mental health and for academic outcomes, but concerns over financial implications have kept the district from committing to make a change — as has figuring out the most efficient configuration.
Advocates were hoping to push the high school start time past the 8 a.m. mark, though Superintendent of Schools Kevin Scanlon pointed out the current proposal ends Ward Melville at 2:21 p.m., allowing time before sports begin at 3 for students to participate in a club or get extra academic help — something he said was a major concern expressed at public meetings on the topic.
“There’s no such thing as perfect,” said Scanlon, who also mentioned the later time should help the 10% of high school students who chronically miss first period. “This is getting us there a little better.”
The board had engaged a transportation consultant to help find efficient ways to change start times and possibly push the high school time to 8 a.m., but unfortunately that exercise produced results Scanlon called “lacking at best.”
The current proposal is one the board has had since at least January and came from a start time subcommittee that has been meeting over the past two years.
The district will seek community input on the change, particularly because of the over $1 million price tag, through a pair of planned public meetings in September, Scanlon announced, adding that the district planned to livestream the sessions and sort out the appropriate technology to allow people to participate and provide feedback virtually.
Board member David McKinnon, a long-time later start time advocate, emphasized that Three Village would source that $1 million by reapportioning funds within the whole budget — not tacking that amount directly onto what residents pay in taxes. Taxpayers vote each year on a budget number, not line-by-line allocations.
McKinnon also cautioned against looking at the change in terms of pure economic efficiency.
“Efficiency is making use of all our resources in an optimal way,” McKinnon said. “As students are starting school so early that they’re not learning, we’re wasting vast amounts of money on teacher salaries. It’s inefficient to be trying to teach kids when they can’t learn or when they’re learning less optimally.”
If the board decides this fall to adopt new start times for the next academic year, those changes would still be subject to the annual budget planning process.
