The official start time for Pelham Elementary is going to be moved up by five minutes this fall to allow for better supervision of students coming into the school prior to the opening bell.

The first bell rings at 8:50 a.m. right now, but students get dropped off at 8:45 a.m. While most teachers are supervising kids in the minutes prior to the first bell, said Principal Alicia LaFrance, school officials wanted to make the language in the policy clearer so that all students would be ensured supervision prior to class starting. Moving the first bell up will also change the school ending time to 3 p.m. instead of 3:05 p.m.

It will also affect the time of the tardy bell, which will be moved from 9 a.m. to 8:55 a.m., an important time change for parents who drop off their kids to remember, LaFrance said.

The teacher contract requires teachers to arrive at Pelham Elementary at 8:40 a.m., five minutes before the busses arrive, leaving a 10-minute interim in which they are not contractually bound to supervise students, although the great majority of teachers are already doing that, she said.

“We actually knew that students in all cases were being supervised very responsibly. What we realized was that our students were getting off the buses at 8:45 and heading right into the building and their classrooms, and there were discrepancies at times teachers assumed responsibility for students,” LaFrance said.

In moving the first bell to 8:45 a.m., LaFrance said, all students will definitely be supervised from the time they walk through the door. The official change is a way to clean up the language of the policy, LaFrance said.

Instruction will now officially start at around 9 a.m. said LaFrance, adding Pelham Elementary teachers agreed to the time adjustment, which has also been approved by the School Board already.

The time change will not affect the bus routes or pick-up schedules at all, said LaFrance, because the students will still arrive at school at the same time they were before.

The buses will arrive five minutes earlier than before to meet the earlier end time, and will hopefully be able to leave the school five minutes earlier than before as well, said LaFrance.