Bethlehem Central will begin preliminary discussions about starting school later for older students, but the issue’s many barriers could put a stop to the idea before it is seriously considered.
Several school board members brought up the topic at the Wednesday, Sept. 17, Board of Education meeting. A number of parents had asked about starting school later for older students following the recommendations released this summer by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which suggested middle and high school should start classes at 8:30 a.m. or later in order to get more sleep.
“The research has always been very clear that the students in this room would probably do better at 9 o’clock than 7 o’clock in the morning,” said Superintendent Tom Douglas.
The superintendent then asked for a show of hands from the students at the meeting, who would like to start school later. About 30 students raised their hands, which was nearly all the students in attendance. When Douglas asked if the students would still be happy with the start time if it meant sports practices started later, more than half of the students put down their hands.
“The research is clear that adolescents who get enough sleep have a reduced risk of being overweight or suffering depression, are less likely to be involved in automobile accidents and have better grades, higher standardized test scores and an overall better quality of life,” said pediatrician Judith Owens, lead author of the policy statement. “Studies have shown that delaying early school start times is one key factor that can help adolescents get the sleep they need to grow and learn.”
The school day now starts at 7:35 a.m. for the high school and ends at 2:07 p.m. Middle school students begin their day at 8:03 a.m.
Board member Joann Cunningham asked what the barriers were to starting the day later.
Douglas said there were a quite a few, including contractual obligations for teachers and staff on when their day begins, bus schedules that would need to change, sports practices that would need to start later and games re-coordinated with other schools.
“Those are discussions first the board needs to hash out and see if it’s a viable alternative here when almost every other school may not be in that position,” said Douglas.
A later start time would also have implications for students who have after-school jobs, or for older siblings who are relied upon to arrive home first in order to watch their younger siblings.
Some board members were concerned that starting school later would not lead to students using the additional time to sleep. By pushing the start time back, students would then stay up later to fit in all of their activities and finish homework. This would mean they would still end up sleeping for the same amount of time as they do now.
Douglas said an open discussion on the topics is fine, but it’s too early to get into specifics on how to implement an earlier start time.
“I don’t think this would be something that could be easily done in the time period we have over the course of the year, but could be part of planning (for the future),” said Douglas.
School board members asked for more information on what it would take to change the policy, and also about possibly changing how the periods are structured in order to accommodate a new start time.
Assistant Super-intendent for Educational Programs Jody Monroe said the subject of changing the structure of the school day had been discussed at length in the past, and she would provide information from past studies at the next meeting.