Yet another study and round of news reports are reviving the issue of later school starts for teens. Here’s a story from the Wall Street Journal.
and here’s a study from the National Sleep Foundation.
there’s even a website called StartSchoolLater.net
(Cue Mike Striar)
If you read through the articles and watch the segments, it’s also important to note that it’s not just that they need more sleep, but also that teens’ circadian rhythms tend towards later to bed, later to rise.
There’s a lot of discussion that this will negatively impact bussing and activity schedules, but surely it’s time to look seriously at a change.
From the video our high schools start much earlier than even the average high school.
I agree with Chris. We need to take this very seriously. We are talking about the health of our children. Other school districts have already made the change to later starting times. Newton Public Schools should contact these districts and ask them about their implementation experience. No need to reinvent the wheel.
I’ve commented about this before as being long-overdue. When I attended Newton North and we had to be ON the bus at 7:15 AM, those first two hours of school were largely wasted. And I saw these same effects with my three children.
Let’s cut somewhat to the chase. Why has this not been implemented?
The only sincere guesses I can think of is:
– It means adjusting teacher schedules, thus involving union rules?
– Working parents like dropping the kids off as early as possible so they can get to work on time?
All three of my kids would have benefited from later start times and now they are all graduated. So, yes, it is past time to move back school start times.
Long overdue. A tip of the hat to Mike Striar for continually hammering this issue home.
Yes.
I agree it’s a great idea, and an important one, but it’s hard to imagine how it would be implemented in such a huge school system as Newton’s. A small town like Wellesley or Needham, with just one high school, one middle school, and a few elementary schools could do it almost with the snap of the fingers. Here, we would have to figure out all new bus schedules—don’t forget, we already have staggered starting times to accommodate our 21 schools! I’m all for it, but I also don’t want to see kids having no daylight hours after school for sports or just hanging out.
Karen, you make some excellent points, but I don’t think NPS has to consider 21 schools for a pilot. It is the high schools ( 2 ) that start at the earliest time, and that is the population of students who are teenagers.
Elementary school starts at 8:20-8:35am, and middle schools start at 8am – 8:30am.
It is the high school students who have a developmental shift in sleep cycles, and need a later starting time.
Yes, Jo-Louise, but the buses needed for the high schoolers to start later would be in use for the middle and elementary schoolers. (Maybe we could start the elementary schoolers early—HA!) Don’t get me wrong, I am all for this idea, I just can’t think of a practical way to do it in terms of buses and traffic.
Karen, I don’t think starting the elementary school students earlier is a big deal. Parents tend to have more control of when younger kids go to bed. Also, parents tend to deliver the younger kids to school rather than putting them on a bus. This cuts down on the prep time for younger kids relative to high school kids who are more likely to take a bus.
The high schools currently start at 7:40 and 7:50. If we don’t like starting the elementary kids at 7:50, perhaps we do something like start elementary schools at 8AM or 8:10, middle at 8:20, and high school at 8:40.
The big picture is that other school districts have already figured this out. This idea has been kicking around for long time. Susan Rosenbaum, who was on the school committee, made this point in her last campaign. I hope we don’t keep kicking it around at the expense of our children. NPS should have been proactive in making this change, as opposed to waiting for parents to prod them.
Natick is considering later HS start times for the 2015-2016 academic year.
http://www.natickps.org/districtinfo/communitynotices/laterhighschoolstarttimes.cfm
Natick spends 25% less per student yet Natick achieves similar results as Newton.
Then again, Natick doesn’t give out lavish compensation packages to the unions like Newton does.
Natick also requires that ALL teachers maintain a website with updated homework. Something that is NOT done in Newton because since it is NOT in their Contract and therefore the Principals at the High Schools cannot make them do it. It is in the contract in Natick that they must maintain the website.
Also if I am not mistaken – Natick also Provides Ipads for the all the HS students.
Unfortunately in Newton Public Schools – they want to reinvent the wheel and therefore other than the Superintendent who seems to COPY ( plagiarize or as he calls it a ” personal failure”) the SC and the NPS cant seem to look at the good things that work in other local communities and bring them to Newton. I guess that would be copying and GASP it only works if the Superintendent does it.
I would support a later start time. However, I think the challenge to implementing later start times will be negotiations with the teachers and also with the bus companies which provide transportation at the bus stops and for the many children who require specialized transportation services as part of an individualized education plan. While it would certainly be easy enough to count up the number of bus routes and stops for regular education kids, I don’t know what we are talking about in terms of special ed transportation, though I suspect that those trips far, far exceed the number of trips for regular education students. As always, the devil is in the details.