The School Committee has been working on changing to a later start time for the Newton schools. From the start there has been some minor resistance to the idea from parents who are concerned about the impact on sports and other after-school activity,
Just this week though a new organization called the ETBETR Parents Alliance has formed to fight the proposed changes. In fact the ETBET.R folks are pushing back hard in the opposite direction – i.e. earlier start times. Says ETBETR president Dean Whitney “If it’s good enough for Ben Franklin, its good enough for me. ‘Early to bed early to rise’ is a whole way of living that has been shown in study after study to lead to health, wealth, and wisdom”.
Says co-president Bill Braudis “Hell I have a hard enough time getting my kids to bed as it is. If you start school even later they’ll be up all night”.
These ETBETR parents are nuts. They are pushing for a 6:45 start time. This group is having momentum. Some parents want their children to have 3 after school activities. NPS thinks this will save $100K in busing.
For people with school age kids, the good news is that given the amount of time that it will take for NPS to act, your children won’t be affected. For couples who are planning on having children over the next couple years, you should contact the school committee and organize.
Thank you for highlighting this important topic. We once thought it was just those of us who lived in the higher elevations in Newton (the “Alpinists”) who felt this was important because we experience the sunrise so much earlier than everyone else.
But we learned that creating an integrated ETBETR Newton infrastructure would have benefits across the city – people would be up and out earlier – maybe even working in their yards – making this truly the Garden City. And once we have the ETBETR cloud infrastructure that Councilor Kalis is supporting, residents will be able to synch start times with their Sleep Number Beds.