BRIDGEPORT -- Administrators in the city school system plan to reverse a controversial decision to unify bell schedules across the district after facing pushback from parents and teachers.
Superintendent Carmela Levy-David announced Thursday that most schools will revert to their old schedules on Sept. 16, ending a short-lived experiment in part aimed at increasing instructional time in the classroom.
The original changes to the start and end times were designed to extend the school day by a total of 15 minutes, but the adjustments raised alarm among some parents and educators who felt it would disrupt their schedules.
"Ensuring that teachers feel confident and empowered will ultimately benefit the well-being of our students," Levy-David said in a statement. "If the changes we implemented create distress for teachers and families, then we're not helping students, so we need to pivot."
Under the now-abandoned plan to unify bell times, elementary and middle schools were instructed to begin instruction at 8:50 a.m. and end at 3:25 p.m., while the high school's were told to operate between 7:53 a.m. and 2:45 p.m.
When the schools revert to their old schedules, most elementary and middle schools will still begin instruction at 8:50 a.m., but end at 3:10 p.m. Similarly, the high schools will start at 7:53 a.m. and end the day at 2:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, Read School will use staggered start times that are expected to be announced by the building administrators. The bell times at Fairchild Wheeler Interdistrict Magnet Campus will also be determined by the campus administrators.
When she announced the schedule change this summer, Levy-David said the new start and end times were created to comply with the state's mandate that school system's provide students with at least 900 hours of instructional time a year.
Levy-David, who was appointed last year, also linked the adjustments to a broader effort to improve student achievement across the resource-staved urban district, which has been designated an Alliance District by the state due to its status as one of the 30 lowest performing districts.
"We know that maximizing instructional time has been proven to yield positive results in student outcomes," Levy-David wrote in a memo to district faculty and staff members.
Levy-David said in the memo that administrators determined the district needed to adjust the bell schedules after reviewing student performance data, current procedures and the contract with the teacher's union.
The contract, which was ratified last fall after negotiations between the union and school board, sets teaching hours at 6 hours and 35 minutes for elementary and middle school teachers, and 6 hours and 52 minutes for high school teachers.
The changes drew opposition from skeptics, including board member Joseph Sokolovic, who said he was concerned the new schedule could inconvenience parents and students familiar with the old bell times.
Leslie Caraballo, a parent and local activist, told board members during a meeting last week that she was concerned some families would not be able to adjust to the schedule changes, calling the move unprofessional.
"It seems like parents were not given an opportunity to have input, as well as teachers, before this change happened," she said. "I received numerous calls from parents stressed out in reference to how are they going to make it in time for work."
Jeff Morrissey, the president of the Bridgeport Education Association, the union that represents the district's teachers, said the new times resulted in several ripple effects that disrupted the start of the school year. He welcomed the decision to reverse course.
"I think that with some communication over the summer this probably wouldn't have occurred and this would have been avoided," Morrissey said. "I am happy that we are going back to the original bell schedule and hopeful that moving forward we will be able to talk these things out before implementing another change."