Franklin Residents Opposed to The Proposed School Start Time Change

With 1 child in high school, 1 in middle school and 1 in elementary.. this will definitely not work for our family!

No to the change in school times. I believe this would be horrible for families with teens they need to be home for the younger children in the family so parents can work. I also feel it would be a huge loss to our sports teams in relation to practice times, ice times, loss of time in class when the kids have to be dismissed early because the rest of the teams don't follow the same change in schedule. I also think it sends the wrong message to the teens that life is meant to accommodate them. Their bosses in the future will not care if the start time works for them or not. They will be expected to be on time and adjust accordingly.

Resident - 156 Lincoln Street

At the moment I have kids in elementary, middle and high school ... this change would effect my family in a very negative way .

Resident - 156 Lincoln Street

No talks about the impact on elementary school students. This is a money issue. The reduced busses saves money. Stop disguising it as “better for the students”

I responded to surveys honestly with the information I had at the time. However, I would have responded differently knowing now that certain activities, clubs and even entire sports teams at the high school level would be omitted, More time and planning is needed to ensure that all students continue to have access to their preferred activities. Perhaps another survey with specifics would yield different results.

I strongly oppose later school start times for middle school and high school. The change to the middle school schedule is completely unacceptable at 95 minutes later. This is a drastic and unnecessary change that will impact many Franklin families schedules including ours. We are two parents working full time. My husband leaves the house at 4:30 am and I cannot arrive at work later. I don’t feel we should have to pay for before school care for our middle schooler, if it’s even available. This will be an unnecessary financial burden on many families including ours. I have been waiting 13 years so far for my two kids to finally start school earlier and find this completely disappointing. A 7:25 start for my middle schooler took some getting used to but he has adjusted just fine. In fact, it taught him responsibility wherein he goes to bed earlier on school nights. I don’t see the point of these changes given the impact it’s going to have on everyone, teachers, parents, local businesses.

While understanding that research supports these start times for our student, research didn’t take into account the many factors that will greatly impact families. Personally, I will have two students in middle school when the new times go into effect. My kids will be need to be left alone for 2 hours each morning before their school will open it’s doors. This puts an added stress on our family. It’s also a shame to hear that the swim team may be cut because of the proposed start times and equally upsetting to hear that students participating in sports will be dismissed early for certain away games. Not sure how “time on learning” is factored into this as well. I am strongly opposed to changing the start times.

No... to school time change. Students, working parents and local businesses will all suffer. Parents will incur additional child care costs which are already outrageously high, children will spend more time in before/after school facilities, local businesses rely on high school students to fill their employee quota for afterschool shifts, older students rely on pay from local businesses for money to help put themselves through college and even for gas to get to and from school and work, not to mention it interferes with external after school activites that parents sign their children up for because the school system no longer offers a majority of them to all students in all grades. We are talking about total life and financial changes here, all for a few minutes sleep for a certain age bracket of the students (not even for all of the students). We honestly cant begin to understand how the school district can justify this unnecessary change that will affect so... many families when it's only really intended to benefit/serve a small portion of students and families.

Very concerned with how this will affect middle & elementary levels. Pond Street, Franklin

I am concerned that the change negatively affects elementary and middle school students and do not want to see changes to the current start times.

Mastro Drive I disagree with the drastic time shifts as well. Moving the elementary school earlier will impact childcare for many families. We already have enough trouble getting our elementary child moving half the time even with her 8pm bedtime. In addition, the disruption to middle school schedules and activities is unacceptable. Finally, working in a high school with a later start time, I can attest to the fact that we have dismissals for athletic games during the late fall and winter so high school students will be missing classes to leave for their athletics because not all schools are on this schedule. And fall sports have to work within the amount of daylight that exists, unless you necessitate that all fields have lights for later games which would come with additional financial costs. Finally the impact upon local employers and their high school employees would be significant. Is the school committee going to explain to Stop N Shop or Big Y that their employees have to start later now because of the shifting times. Shorter shifts for high schoolers, due to limitations on working hours, means these students will be earning less and potentially therefore saving less for college impacting their future.

As a teacher and Franklin parent, I’m not opposed to a later start time for high school students. I’m opposed to this change coming at the expense of middle and elementary school students.

Wachusett St

I am very concerned with the potential financial burden of after school care.

No to time change

Baron Rd, Franklin

i strongly disagree with this proposal the impact it will have childrens and parents schedules nevermind affecting after school sports just isnt justified!!

I am very against changing the school times.