As members of the faculty at Northampton High School, we appreciate the Northampton School Committee's dedication and thoughtful approach to ensuring that all students in Northampton schools receive a high-quality education. We teachers recognize that most choices you must make to improve teaching and learning can be difficult ones that involve sacrificing something in one area in order to gain in another.

As educators with first-hand experience and knowledge of the economic troubles and resource shortages facing our high school, we would like to weigh in on one choice you are currently faced with: cutting more than $90,000 from the high school's budget to cover the cost of busing for a later school start time. While there is little disagreement that there can be health benefits for our students if their school hours are shifted, the proposed way of paying for this shift would cut at the heart of what makes an education at NHS so rich and meaningful. It would eliminate many classes that keep our students engaged, tap into their creativity, and stretch them academically. The resulting negative impacts on individual students intellectually and emotionally, and on our climate and identity as a community would not be offset by the benefits derived from a 30-minute later start.

Please vote no to cutting funding to the high school to pay for a later start time.