In alignment with LMSD’s Strategic Plan, All Forward, the District strives to provide students with a full array of extracurricular activities. These activities – whether in the arts, athletics or STEM -- provide students opportunities to pursue their passions and interests, excel and feel a sense of belonging within the school community, contributing to better outcomes.

Approximately 50% of high school students participate in athletics, which contribute to their physical and mental well-being and build important skills, such as collaboration and resiliency, as well as providing opportunities for scholarships to further their educations beyond LMSD. Later start times for high school mean later end times as well, decreasing the number of daylight hours for those students to safely practice and compete, thus limiting the benefits they can derive from athletic participation. Lighting the field will enable student athletes enough time for practices and competitions so that they can safely participate and compete with their peers across the Central Athletic League.

Maintaining the ability for students to participate in extracurricular activities was a priority of the original All Forward Research and Development Committee’s Workgroup on Adolescent Sleep and School Start Time. In Spring 2021, the Lower Merion Board of School Directors passed a resolution supporting starting high school in the second tier, pending the approval of lights on Arnold Field.

For the reasons mentioned above, having lights for student athletes is a critical consideration. That is why, in 2020, the Board approved a move to later start times, with high schools starting second, pending the approval of lights. Superintendent Mumin is working with community members and the Township Commissioners on developing a plan for lights that will enable Healthy Start Times to move forward without sacrificing the needs of student athletes.

Even if it were approved by the Board, a slight shift in start times, that would depend on transportation feasibility. The LMSD Transportation Department doesn’t just serve LMSD schools, but also transports students to more than 130 non-public schools and must ensure those students arrive at the correct times for their bell schedules. Again, budgetary, staffing and parking considerations would need to be analyzed. Transportation contractors are used for some non-public school and outside District placements, as well as after-school sports and activities runs, but the transportation contractors are experiencing the same challenges recruiting and retaining qualified drivers that LMSD and many other districts across the country are facing.

If the District has a definitive timeline for lights, a change in start times could occur before the lighting installation is complete. This would require additional transportation and budgetary considerations that are not sustainable for the long-term, but might be workable for a period of a couple of years.

The current three-tier transportation system enables the same bus and driver to transport high school students, then middle school students and then elementary students, in the morning and the afternoon. If each bus and driver could only run two routes, as would be the case if there were only two different start times, the District would require approximately 30- 40 additional buses and drivers. This is not feasible or realistic in light of the current bus driver shortage, during which the District cannot fill current driver job openings, even with increased pay and other incentives. In addition, even if the District were to buy 30-40 additional buses, there is no room to park them at current facilities and there’s a long history of community resistance to additional school bus parking locations, both within and outside of LMSD.

The recommendation that was presented to the Board in 2019, after extensive research and community input (which you can read about here) called for elementary school to start first, followed by high school and then middle school, pending the approval of lights on Arnold Field. That proposal drew considerable feedback from elementary parents and guardians, who cited concerns about young students waiting for buses or walking on dark mornings and concerns about childcare, if older siblings were not at home when the elementary day ended. It also drew feedback from middle school families, who were concerned about the impact of a much later start on the ability of middle school students to participate in after-school athletics and activities. The recommendation at the time also didn’t fully consider potential impacts of the opening of Black Rock Middle School or the possible implementation of full-day kindergarten.

For these reasons, the Administration is running analyses (including looking at budget, staffing and transportation) of the prior proposal and also the “secondary swap,” which would have middle school starting first, followed by high school and then elementary school. Once these analyses are complete, the reconvened SHSSAC will once again weigh pros and cons, solicit additional feedback and work towards a recommendation to the Board. They will also look at how it might be possible to enact a scenario where no level starts prior to 8:00 a.m.

The goal of the full-day kindergarten committee is to advise the Administration prior the Administration’s recommendation to the Lower Merion Board of School Directors in March 2023. The committee includes LMSD staff and administrators and parents/guardians, who applied and who represent a cross-section of schools and areas of expertise. The committee is cognizant of the impact a public full-day K program would have on numerous community organizations that currently provide kindergarten programs and on the people who work in those programs.

Yes. The Administration is looking at all of the considerations (staffing, facilities, budget, etc.) with and without full-day K and with and without a change in start times, so that all the data is available prior to recommendations for either or both.

Even after fifth grade moved out, several schools are still tight on space, especially those schools that were using modular classrooms that have been removed. This results in less space for unified arts programs (and situations like “art on a cart”) and other student and staff activities, including collaboration spaces, meeting spaces, etc.

In addition, kindergarten and fifth grade classroom spaces are fundamentally different, due to the different sizes and developmental levels of the children using them. Kindergartners can’t reach shelves that fifth graders can, nor can they sit in the same desks, etc. Those are some of the reasons why the facilities are one of the areas that must be explored. Other factors to be considered are whether there should be changes in class sizes, whether there would be different programs offered at different schools depending on space.

Not yet. Other considerations are for paraprofessional staff, curriculum development and resources, additional nutritional services and transportation costs and staff, facilities renovation/furniture, etc. Those are the areas that the administration is working on estimating to present concrete figures to the Board for consideration.