The Bridgewater Raritan School District recently approved new start times for the 2026-2027 school year and beyond. This poses some great questions and concerns among students, staff, and parents. With recent surveys and more to come, they have shown that students, staff, and parents will be negatively impacted by this change.

The new start and end times for the schools are as follows: High School - 8AM-3:01PM; Middle School - 7:30AM-2:10PM; Intermediate Schools - 8AM - 2:25PM; Primary Schools - 9:20AM-3:40PM. These start times pose great problems for the mere future. For example, students will have great trouble with adjusting to the new start and end times. Students are and have been used to the start times since they started in the school district, changing them now can mess up students work capbilities, High School students jobs, and students who do half day at Votech and half day at BRHS. With personal experience, students focus more and seem more awake when we are in school at 7:20AM. (Highschool) 

Regarding students who do half day at Votech, they have not come out in saying they will change their start and end time. This shows a great problem for the half day students. Students who do half days switch to either Votech or the Highschool during lunch. With the new start times, the lunch times for both high schools will most likely not be lined up and will pose a question being, "how can we get the half day students to the other school?" Another problem is students with afterschool jobs. With the proposed now approved new start and end times, it could cost students their jobs if they have a strict job schedule. 

The other problem is the busing. The high school and intermediate schools will be starting at the same time. How will the bus situation work? In the approved start times, no new buses were bought or hired for the next school year. This can cause a bus shortage or very late pick up and drop offs at the 3 schools. Buses being late to school or being late to pick up students, it can impact learning.

A BIG issue with the new time changes are sports. For example, for the highshool sports normally ending around 4-5pm, they will now end closer to 6-7pm. This poses problems with jobs and other extracurricular activities.

I would also like to add that if starting later is better for students, why is the Middle School starting earlier? Won't students just stay up later and not get more sleep? There are many more questions to be asked and answered. Overall, the majority of students, staff, and parents agree that this approved start and end times are not the right choice and will cause problems if they arent changed or reverted. We hope you can back us up, speak your mind, and have your voice heard. This petition will be shown at one or more of BRRSD's 2026 Board of Education's meetings. Make sure to share this petiton with everyone you know, one person could make a huge difference.