Southampton School District To Look Into Later Start Time For Students

The Southampton School District will look into a later start time for high school students in the future.At a school board meeting Tuesday night, Board Vice President Donald King said that his son, who is a senior, has benefited from not having a first-period class this year, and that the district should look into starting school later to give students more time to sleep. Currently, high school students are expected to be in the building no later than 7:26 a.m.; a warning bell goes off before the start of first period at 7:31 a.m. The district proposed exploring a later start time last year as well, but never followed through.“I think we should really start to think about that seriously,” Mr. King said. “I’m really amazed at that difference that I see in my own son. That difference of a half-hour is just amazing in his day.”If Southampton eventually moves forward with a later start time, it would be following in the footsteps of the Sag Harbor School District, which started classes at Pierson Middle/High School 10 minutes later this year.Other Southampton School Board members agreed with Mr. King, and Board President Heather McCallion suggested that the district reach out to Sag Harbor officials to see how it’s worked there so far. “For students, 20 minutes is 20 minutes,” she said.Superintendent Scott Farina said the district “can absolutely put together a group of people to get that done,” but noted that the biggest challenge will be reworking bus routes. “We will get on it,” he said.