Williamsville, N.Y. (WBEN) - Williamsville Schools may have new class times as soon as next school year.
Williamsville South Principle Keith Boardman says this has been over a year long process involving a committee of teachers, administrators, and district officials that reviewed research and worked through a variety of logistical hurdles.
"We kind of did a blue sky phase where we said, 'Okay, throw out all the things that we need to consider and examine if we were to go make these changes.' It was after school events, sports, you know. How does it affect this? How does it do this? How does it affect other programs we have? What about daycare? What about transportation, you know? We then proceeded to kind of go through all of those concerns that we had thrown out there, and that we had thought of, and then that the research had indicated, and tried to ensure that we were addressing those concerns as best we possibly could," stated Boardman in an interview with WBEN.
Williamsville Board of Education President, Crystal Kaczmarek-Bogner, says the board will be voting on proposed times at their Feb. 11th meeting.
"We are in a 30 day comment period. The feedback form will be open for our community constituents to send their comments. The board will be reviewing all of the comments that are submitted via the feedback form, plus anything we may get by email. Then at our February 11 board meeting, there will be board discussion and a vote on the proposal," explained Kaczmarek-Bogner.
Boardman says parents have already been providing feedback, and while there are plenty who support the change, there is plenty who still have concerns.
"Even after you answer those questions as best you can with those things that we've anticipated, that doesn't mean that they still aren't worried about them and want to ask more. So I think we've seen people reach out with concerns about it. We've definitely seen people reach out and say that they support it. I think what's important for us is to make sure that we're doing the best job possible of communicating all of the different research that we've found," stated Boardman.
Proposed start/end times:
(Elementary) Dodge, Forest, Heim, Maple East - 7:50 a.m. to 2 p.m.
(Elementary) Maple West, Country Parkway - 8:20 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
(Middle) Casey, Heim, Mill, Transit - 8:20 a.m. to 3 p.m.
(High) East, North, South 8:50 a.m. to 3:40 p.m.