HAMDEN, Conn. — Hamden Public Schools has been forced to consider changing its start times because of a lack of funding. However, after a special board meeting on Tuesday night, that may not need to happen.
In that virtual public meeting, the Board of Education chair announced that the town’s legislative council could be willing to give the schools $600,000 to close the transportation gaps that prompted the issue of start times in the first place.
Originally, the district was flat-funded. They needed six or seven more buses to operate efficiently. In response, the district planned to push all elementary school start times to 9 a.m. and middle schools' start times to 8:25 a.m.
Hamden Public Schools sent out a survey to families and found 29% of them didn’t want a schedule change because of daycare and childcare issues.
The results from that survey were presented to the council, and the board chair said they are verbally committed to fixing this.
“My hope is that [the] legislative council will understand that they have an opportunity to make things right. Because there are just devastating consequences of flat-funding us," said Melissa Kaplan, Board of Education chair.
The board voted to keep the schedule as is, relying on the council to pull through.
But some board members are not happy with the process.
“Where does it end?" asked Austin Cesare, a Hamden Board of Education member. "Every single year they can basically hold us over our heads to vote a certain way otherwise we’re not getting funding. It seems like it’s a back door approach."
Kaplan said the council could vote on this issue as soon as Monday. FOX61 has requested to speak to council members but have not heard back at the time.
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Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jleblanc@fox61.com Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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