Swampscott votes to stagger school start times

SWAMPSCOTT-School start times for the upcoming academic year for all schools in the district have been changed.At a recent meeting, the Swampscott School Committee voted to change the school day at the middle school to 8 a.m. until 2:20 p.m. for the upcoming academic year. During the 2007-2008 academic year the middle school was in session from 8:15 a.m. to 2:35 p.m.School Committee member David Whelan said the change was made at the request of parents, who had concerns about the elementary and middle schools being dismissed at the same time.?Elementary and middle schools were scheduled to be released at 2:15 p.m.,” he said. “This created a problem for some parents so we made some changes.”Last month, the district changed the hours the elementary schools will be in session in the fall to meet a Department of Education mandate requiring 900 hours of instructional time per year for elementary school students. Elementary school students will be in school from 8:20 a.m. until 2:15 p.m.Malone said the additional 10 minutes a day would bring the district up to 911 hours of educational time per year at the elementary school level. He pointed out the current contract with the Swampscott Education Association requires elementary school teachers to be in the building from 8:15 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. anyway, so the actual number of hours teachers would be in the school building would not change.But the Swampscott Education Association (SEA) has taken issue with the decision to increase the amount of time students are in school because it gives teachers less preparation time during the school day. SEA President Paul Maguire said the union has been in negotiations with Malone for months regarding the issue, but an agreement has not yet been reached.The hours the high school was in session during the 2007-2008 academic year was from 7:55 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. Beginning in September, the high school will be in session from 8:10 a.m. until 2:30 p.m.Malone said the later start time makes sense because having staggered start and end times for the schools would serve to alleviate traffic congestion. He also pointed out research indicates adolescents perform better later in the day than they do early in the morning.