Eastbayri.com

BARRINGTON — To the editor:

Reflecting on the Barrington School Committee’s forum on changing school times last Thursday, I wanted to share some thoughts. The invited speakers were well informed and balanced in their comments and responses to questions from the Barrington residents present. It was made clear that school start times are changed expressly to benefit high school age youngsters. The needs of the many other school children in Barrington who are not of high school age do not seem to be under consideration at all. In fact, our younger learners were never mentioned, unless an audience member brought them into the exchange.

Dr. Richard Millman (Co-Director of the Pediatric Sleep Disorders Center at Hasbro Children’s Hospital), stated, “this is all about high school students.” Dr. Millman did not diminish the enormity, complexity, or cost of the changes that would need to be made system and community wide, as well as by every family with a child in a Barrington public school, if this initiative is approved.

Dr. Millman stated unequivocally and repeatedly that the bedtimes of high school students must remain the same or the benefits from the start time change will be negated, because the youngsters will not be getting the extra sleep that is the objective in making the change. In other words, the only way this will be effective, is if the extra time gained in the morning by a later start time at the high school, is consistently used by the kids only for sleep. Given the uncertain nature of adolescent bedtime habits, the potential benefits of delaying school start times seem tenuous, at best.

The other speaker was Lisa M. Bogan, a “school start time specialist” from Wilton, Conn. where school start times had been changed in the fall of 2003. In Wilton, the high school gained 40 minutes of time in the morning as a result of the change. It is important to note that in Wilton, the primary schools’ (grades K-2, comparable to Grades K-3 here) schedules were left untouched when school start times were changed. When asked if student performance has been measurably improved by the change, Ms. Bogan was not able to answer in the affirmative. She did say that the kids seemed happier and more alert, but that as far as statistical improvement is concerned, none could be reported.

I am concerned that school start time changes will be detrimental to our younger students. Changing school start times will have many implications for our young children and preteens that have not, as far as I know, been addressed.

What will happen to before and after school programs at our primary schools, as well as Hampden Meadows, and Barrington Middle School? When bus routes are combined and transportation schedules changed, what time will our children need to be at the bus stop? How long will our children be on the bus on their way to and from school?

Ann Ackerman

Barrington