Bath Central board reviews start-time survey showing community split and transportation concerns

Bath Central School District officials presented results of a community survey on proposed school start-time changes, with presenters saying hundreds of responses favored a later-start plan but noting significant questions about transportation and extracurricular impacts. The board did not vote and said it expects to revisit the issue in June.

Randy, who led the presentation, said 741 surveys were submitted across seven stakeholder groups, including students, parents, instructional and noninstructional staff, community members and day-care providers, and cautioned that some responses may be duplicates because respondents can appear in multiple groups. "Overall, these are our numbers that participated in the survey. 741 surveys were submitted," Randy said during the presentation.

Randy summarized group breakdowns and preferences: students and instructional staff tended to favor "option B" (a later start for middle/high school), while parent responses were nearly split between the two options. He described specific concerns raised in open-ended comments—transportation routing, the need for additional buses, impacts on athletics schedules and questions about breakfast and after-school help—and recommended further outreach and a traffic study before a decision. "We're gonna have to get more buses. We're gonna have to have more buses," he said when outlining transportation implications.

Board members framed the presentation as an initial information step. The chair said the district began looking at start times before COVID and that additional analysis and communication would be required before any change. "We don't expect a decision tonight, but a decision by June is probably going to be what's needed," the chair said, outlining a timeline to allow route planning and stakeholder outreach.

Public comment reflected the mixed reaction. Danny Chapman, who identified himself as a local parent and someone who works with the police department, urged the board to include a "no change" option in future surveys and described conversations with other parents and coaches who opposed changing start times. "My daughter does advanced classes and she does... every extra curricular activity... she's lucky if she goes to bed by 11:00 at night," Chapman said, arguing a later start could worsen evening schedules for some students.

Presenters said the district will post the full results for community review, organize the open-ended comments by stakeholder group and return to the board in June with additional analysis and recommended next steps, including a traffic study and targeted outreach to address concerns about special-needs students, athletics and breakfast/after-school programming.

What happens next: the district will publish the survey results and comments, gather further input and expects to bring a proposed decision back to the board in June for possible action or further refinement.