Vote to move Greenwich High School start time from 8:30am to 7:45am saves millions

On Thursday the Board of Education (BOE) met to find a way to live with an increase of $8 million (+3%) in their budget this year and not the full $12 million (+5.4%) they requested from the Town finance board (BET). At a prior meeting on May 8, the BOE ended up finding over $2 million of savings from decisions to cut mostly administrative items. Story here.

At this Thursday's May 15 meeting, they found another $2.5 million, including $1.96 million in transportation cost savings achieved by changing school start times at Greenwich High School from 8:30am to 7:45am. No surprise, most Greenwich high school students don't like the idea, but many of the local private and neighboring public schools have similar early schedules.

The BOE also found another $551,000 of cuts, to be determined by School Superintendent Jones, targeting substitute teachers and outplacement expenses.

Between the Lines: After all the outcry, it looks like there was wiggle room in the school budget to find efficiencies after all. Congratulations to the BOE on getting the hard work done.

Story here