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Holliston - Local Town Pages

Holliston school start times to change next school year

Elementary to start earlier, middle and high Schools to start later 
By Theresa Knapp
In December, the Holliston School Committee voted to change the school day start times for the 2025-2026 school year. 

At a meeting of the Select Board on Dec. 23, member Ben Sparrell, who is the board’s representative to the School Committee, said the committee had voted on Dec. 19 to implement the following school hours in the fall: 
Placentino Elementary: 7:40 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.
Miller Elementary: 7:40 a.m. to 2:18 p.m.
Adams Middle School: 8:25 a.m. to 3:03 p.m. 
Holliston High School: 8:15 p.m. to 3:03 p.m. 

Sparrell said, “I was part of the subcommittee that was discussing the issues throughout October and this recommendation that was made in December but a lot of work had done previously, a few years ago in 2019, around start times.” 
He said minor adjustments could still be made before schedules are finalized. 
Sparrell said there was a push to implement the changes by Jan. 1 to comply with the teachers’ contract which recently negotiated an additional 10-15 more minutes per day of instructional time. In addition, the district will soon be going out to bid for bus services; the town currently has three bus runs and the new schedule will require two runs. 
“I think that the main change is Placentino,” said Sparrell. “That affects me because of my Kindergartener. I drop him off right around a little before 9 a.m., around 8:50 a.m., and we’ll be moving to a 7:40 a.m. start time, according to this current schedule – there might be some tweaks and some nuance there.”