BY MATT LINDSEY
North Country This Week

POTSDAM — The Potsdam Central School Board of Education has voted to make no change to the school start time.

Tuesday night the school board voted not to make a change in the school start time but also passed a resolution directing PCS Superintendent Joann Chambers to continue investigating the feasibility of moving to a single bus run.

“The Board would like to see a more detailed analysis of the costs related to making this move in the future,” Chambers said. “The Board recognizes that any change of this magnitude would also require us to renegotiate contracts with our labor unions.”

The district has been considering different options for start times for students for about three years.

The school board explored the feasibility of shifting start times to be better aligned with the recommendations of sleep experts.

The goal would be to have students in middle and high school start they academic days later in the morning, as they tend to go to sleep much later than younger students.

“Many members of the Board, and many staff and parents who responded to the survey sent out in June, recognize the benefits a later school start time would have for secondary students,” Chambers said. “However, at this time, the community has not reached consensus on the best way to achieve this goal. Any change would cause a disruption to families, and many of our community members are not in support of a single bus run at the current estimated cost.”