A survey about the controversial Westport school start time issue released today shows that parents with children at two schools initiating earlier start times this year either have negative or mixed feelings about it, but staff members at the schools mostly favor it.
In addition, a district-wide survey found that parents mostly support a 15-minute later shift in start and ending times while staff members mostly oppose it.
The results were released at an afternoon meeting of the School Start Time Committee. Asked his reaction to the survey, Schools Supt. Elliott Landon had a one-word response: “interesting.”
At a December meeting of the Board of Education, several board members suggested the panel consider a compromise 15-minute change something that also had been raised earlier this year but rejected.
The board was scheduled to hear the Start Time Committee’s report at its Feb. 4 meeting.
Two schools ֖ Coleytown Middle School and Coleytown Elementary School started classes a half-hour earlier beginning in September to save money on transportation costs.
The move sparked an outcry from parents who said the decision meant their children would get less sleep and also suffer academically.
The issue was hotly debated during the November election for three board seats.
The results as released by the committee:
| Coleytown Elementary School Survey Results – PARENTS: 239/324 Families responded to the survey | ||
| Question 1: My experience with the early start time at CES has been (positive, negative mixed) ( 241) | ||
| Total | Percentage | |
| Positive | 62 | 25.7 |
| Negative | 86 | 35.7 |
| Mixed | 93 | 38.6 |
| The mixed experience answered question 2 as follows: (five people chose a different answer) | ||
| Easy | 12 | 13.6 |
| Hard… Satisfactory now | 51 | 58.0 |
| Struggle | 25 | 28.4 |
| Question 2: My family has found the early start time at CES (Easy to adjust to; Hard at first but satisfactory now; A consistent struggle to adjust to) (236) | ||
| Easy | 65 | 27.5 |
| Hard… Satisfactory now | 65 | 27.5 |
| Struggle | 106 | 44.9 |
| Question 3: In the next school year, I would like to see the school hours at CES: (248) (some people selected two responses) | ||
| 7:30 – 2:15 | 11 | 4.4 |
| 8:00 – 2:45 | 65 | 34.3 |
| 8:30 – 3:15 | 134 | 54.0 |
| 9:00 – 3:45 | 18 | 7.3 |
| Coleytown Elementary School Survey Results – STAFF: 27/56 Staff responded to the survey (48.2%) | ||
| Question 1: My experience with the early start time at CES has been (positive, negative mixed) (27) | ||
| Total | Percentage | |
| Positive | 17 | 63.0 |
| Negative | 3 | 11.1 |
| Mixed | 7 | 26.0 |
| Question 2: In my work with students, I have found the following to be true (Students seem consistently tired throughout the day; Students starts off the day a bit tired but quickly get on track for the rest of the day; I have seen no significant difference in student focus or alertness between students on our current schedule and those in my prior Westport experiences; I have no prior experience to contrast with this year at CES.) (28) | ||
| Consistently tired | 3 | 10.7 |
| Tired, but get on track | 6 | 21.4 |
| No significant difference | 19 | 67.9 |
| No prior experience | 0 | 0 |
| Question 3: In the next school year, I would like to see the school hours at CES: (26) | ||
| 7:30 – 2:15 | 3 | 11.5 |
| 8:00 – 2:45 | 17 | 65.4 |
| 8:30 – 3:15 | 5 | 19.2 |
| 9:00 – 3:45 | 1 | 3.8 |
| Coleytown Middle School Survey Results – PARENTS: 305/444 Families responded to the survey (68.7%) | ||
| Question 1: My experience with the early start time at CMS has been (positive, negative mixed) ( 305) | ||
| Total | Percentage | |
| Positive | 66 | 21.6 |
| Negative | 139 | 45.6 |
| Mixed | 100 | 32.8 |
| The mixed experience answered question 2 as follows: (five people chose a different answer) | ||
| Easy | 18 | 20.0 |
| Hard… Satisfactory now | 44 | 48.9 |
| Struggle | 28 | 31.1 |
| Question 2: My family has found the early start time at CMS (Easy to adjust to; Hard at first but satisfactory now; A consistent struggle to adjust to) (300) | ||
| Easy | 73 | 24.3 |
| Hard… Satisfactory now | 60 | 20.0 |
| Struggle | 167 | 55.7 |
| Question 3: In the next school year, I would like to see the school hours at CMS: (320) (some people selected two responses) | ||
| 7:30 – 2:15 | 74 | 23.1 |
| 8:00 – 2:45 | 165 | 51.6 |
| 8:30 – 3:15 | 63 | 19.7 |
| 9:00 – 3:45 | 18 | 5.6 |
| Coleytown Middle School Survey Results – STAFF: 30/54 Staff responded to the survey (55.6%) | ||
| Question 1: My experience with the early start time at CMS has been (positive, negative mixed) (30) | ||
| Total | Percentage | |
| Positive | 21 | 70.0 |
| Negative | 0 | 0.0 |
| Mixed | 9 | 30.0 |
| Question 2: In my work with students, I have found the following to be true (Students seem consistently tired throughout the day; Students starts off the day a bit tired but quickly get on track for the rest of the day; I have seen no significant difference in student focus or alertness between students on our current schedule and those in my prior Westport experiences; I have no prior experience to contrast with this year at CMS.) (30) | ||
| Consistently tired | 1 | 3.3 |
| Tired, but get on track | 4 | 13.3 |
| No significant difference | 24 | 80.0 |
| No prior experience | 1 | 3.3 |
| Question 3: In the next school year, I would like to see the school hours at CMS: (29) | ||
| 7:30 – 2:15 | 21 | 72.4 |
| 8:00 – 2:45 | 8 | 27.6 |
| 8:30 – 3:15 | 0 | 0 |
| 9:00 – 3:45 | 0 | 0 |
| DISTRICT-WIDE (“15 MINUTE”) SURVEY | ||
| District-Wide (“15 Minute”) Survey – PARENTS | ||
| 1863/3193 Families responded to the survey (58.3%) | ||
Parents were asked to indicate one response
| ||
| Total | Percentage | |
| "I support … " | 1245 | 66.8 |
| "I oppose … " | 471 | 25.3 |
| "No Opinion" | 147 | 7.9 |
| by School Breakdown-Parents | ||
ELEMENTARY – Coleytown 215/337 Families Responded to the Survey (63.8%) | ||
| Support 15 Min. | 176 | 81.9 |
| Oppose 15 Min. | 27 | 12.6 |
| No Opinion | 12 | 5.6 |
ELEMENTARY – Greens Farms 249/399 Families Responded to the Survey (62.4%) | ||
| Support 15 Min. | 141 | 56.6 |
| Oppose 15 Min. | 89 | 35.7 |
| No Opinion | 19 | 7.6 |
ELEMENTARY – King’s Highway 193/339 Families Responded to the Survey (56.9%) | ||
| Support 15 Min. | 135 | 69.9 |
| Oppose 15 Min. | 48 | 24.9 |
| No Opinion | 10 | 5.2 |
ELEMENTARY – Long Lots 287/465 Families Responded to the Survey (61.7%) | ||
| Support 15 Min. | 163 | 56.8 |
| Oppose 15 Min. | 99 | 34.5 |
| No Opinion | 25 | 8.7 |
ELEMENTARY – Saugatuck 234/352 Families Responded to the Survey (66.5%) | ||
| Support 15 Min. | 148 | 63.2 |
| Oppose 15 Min. | 65 | 27.8 |
| No Opinion | 21 | 9.0 |
MIDDLE – Bedford 206/363 Families Responded to the Survey (56.7%) | ||
| Support 15 Min. | 138 | 67.0 |
| Oppose 15 Min. | 53 | 25.7 |
| No Opinion | 15 | 7.3 |
MIDDLE – Coleytown 151/252 Families Responded to the Survey (59.9%) | ||
| Support 15 Min. | 114 | 75.5 |
| Oppose 15 Min. | 29 | 19.2 |
| No Opinion | 8 | 5.3 |
SECONDARY – Staples 332/686 Families Responded to the Survey (48.4%) | ||
| Support 15 Min. | 234 | 70.5 |
| Oppose 15 Min. | 61 | 18.4 |
| No Opinion | 37 | 11.1 |
| DISTRICT-WIDE (“15 MINUTE”) STAFF SURVEY (340/560 Professional Staff- 60.7%) | |||
| SCHOOL | SUPPORT | OPPOSE | NO OPINION |
| Green’s Farms | 3 | 33 | 3 |
| King’s Highway | 6 | 17 | 2 |
| Long Lots | 3 | 30 | 1 |
| Coleytown Elementary | 12 | 9 | 0 |
| Bedford | 11 | 31 | 10 |
| Staples | 27 | 43 | 13 |
| Adm. | 3 | 24 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 79 (23.2%) | 220 (64.7%) | 41 (12.1%) |
| SURVEY ADDENDUM: Parent Survey | ||
| The following is a brief analysis of a subset of the Coleytown Elementary and Coleytown Middle School Parent surveys dealing with parents’ experiences in the first year of each school being on an earlier clock. For CES, school has started at 8:00 A.M.; for CMS, it has started at 7:30. This breakout specifically looks at the responses
The collators were asked to look at each survey
Following are the results for each school: | ||
Coleytown Elementary School
93 Parents responded that their experiences with | ||
| Total | Percentage | |
| “Easy to Adjust to” | 12 | 13 |
| “Hard at first but Satisfactory now” | 51 | 55 |
| “A Consistent Struggle to Adjust to” | 25 | 27 |
| [Other written responses] | 5 | 5 |
Coleytown Middle School
100 Parents responded that their experiences with | ||
| Total | Percentage | |
| “Easy to Adjust to” | 18 | 18 |
| “Hard at first but Satisfactory now” | 44 | 44 |
| “A Consistent Struggle to Adjust to” | 28 | 28 |
| [Other written responses] | 10 | 10 |
Thank you, WestportNow, for posting the full results of the survey.
You have performed a real public service by doing so (couldn’t find similar on the school website).
WestportNow is quickly becoming a valuable resource for our community. Keep up the good work!