Letter: Greenwich Schools Late Start/Late Dismissal = Taxes & Sleep or Program Cuts & Sleep

Letter to the editor submitted by “GHS Families Against Late Dismissal” June 25, 2016

Dear Editor,

We are writing on behalf of hundreds of Greenwich families who are against the late start/late dismissal resolution that was recently passed by the Board of Education.

We believe it would potentially harm our educational and community landscape.

Until solutions to serious and negative impacts are provided, we do not support the initiative.

Our concerns include undue burdens on working families, students involved in after school programs (clubs, athletics), commuting teachers and faculty, and potential risks to other educational programs to annually fund this late start and dismissal program.

Currently additional bus transportation costs alone is estimated between $1.0 to $1.6 million per year.

We do believe that there are legitimate concerns about sleep deprivation for our children, but we do not believe that changing start and dismissal times of our schools will resolve the problem alone–it is not a silver bullet that should be funded by Greenwich taxpayers. In fact, our community is not being heard. 46 percent of our students said they did not want a start and dismissal time change of 60 minutes later. 64% of our teachers are against the change.

The time options that are now on the table were not part of any public survey – They were derived by the Superintendent’s Office.

From our point of view, this has been a one way conversation lead by a group that does not fully represent other concerned parents of this community.

Respectfully,

GHS Families Against Late Dismissal

Greenwich Free Press -

Letter: Greenwich Schools Late Start/Late Dismissal = Taxes & Sleep or Program Cuts & Sleep

By: greenwichfreepress | June 26, 2016