Beyond Darien
High School Now Starts at 8:30 AM in Greenwich, Middle School at 8: How That’s Working Out
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When the new school year started two weeks ago in Greenwich, it started a little later in the day as a result of changes adopted by the town’s Board of Education, a controversial move and part of a national debate that pits concerns about keeping students alert with other concerns, including sports practices and game times. On Thursday, the Greenwich Board of Education heard from about 20 parents, teachers and others about how the new school schedule has been working out, eight days into the new school year. Despite kinks in the bus scheduling and challenges scheduling sports practice and competitions in other towns, feedback was overall very positive on the benefits to students of the extra hour of sleep. Valerie Erde said her son, a GHS senior, had wanted to speak at the hearing but had decided since he finished his homework early, he would work on his college applications. CORRECTION: This article originally said the school start time for both middle and high school students was 8:30 a.m. Middle school students in Greenwich Public Schools actually start at 8 p.m. (The article was corrected at 8:30 p.m., Sept.