The TAB’s Laura Lovett has the latest on efforts to delay school start times for sleep deprived high school students. (Spoiler alert: Mike Striar is not going to be happy)
Later school start times in Newton still a work in progress
by Greg Reibman | Dec 13, 2016 | School Committee, Schools | 15 comments
True… Mike Striar is not happy about this. But I’m also not the least bit surprised. It’s exactly as I predicted. Ambiguous survey results, and a continued lack of leadership from the pathetic losers on the School Committee.
Once again I have to point out that Mayor Warren has the autonomous authority to change the early morning start times. Setti wants to be Governor. Maybe he should start by showing a little leadership in Newton first.
Three thousand Newton students are subjected to a torture technique known as sleep deprivation every day. The broad reaching health consequences are well documented, stress, depression, and suicide. Yet, not a single elected official has stepped up to the plate to deal with this issue in earnest. This city is in desperate need of leadership.
Later start times is a no-brainer. It’s truly depressing that this community can’t even come to a consensus on this one health decision. Mike’s right, no leadership!!!!
@Mike,
I thought the Mayor is only one vote on the School Committee. Can you reference the authority that you say he has? I’m not trying to be flippant, I just don’t know the law, statute, or ordinance, that gives him unilateral authority over the elected body of the School Committee. Again, not trying to be mean, just trying to educate myself.
Hi Randy– The following is from the City Charter, Sec. 3-2 [a] Executive Powers…
“In general–The executive and administrative powers of the City shall be vested solely in the Mayor, and may be exercised by him either personally or through the several City agencies under his general supervision and control.”
That verbiage gives the Mayor the autonomous authority to change high school start times. Had he exercised that authority any time in the last seven years, the School Committee would have gone right along with him and this would no longer be an issue.
This is ridiculous! As a parent of a freshman I was hopeful that this would be my only year of having my kid catch the 6:55 am bus. How many more families will need to struggle with this? How many more experts and studies? They keep referring that they need to take their time….. which they do with every thing. This is sad. The kids need the adults to make the change for their health.
Devil is always in the details. As a parent of an pair of elementary school kids who sleep perfectly fine until 7:30 AM, I am worried about the impact on my family and other kids in other schools, as well as high schoolers. I am also concerned that any plan with an early start time for elementary school will reduce the number of walkers and bikers we have to our “most local” schools.
So, even with consensus to change high school times, someone still has to decide what the impact on others should be and at what cost.
I have reviewed the literature on the topic, and while I’m convinced there’s compelling evidence of the benefits of later start times, I wonder about other effects as well that we’re not currently paying attention to. For example, an equally compelling amount of research points to the screens and blue light altering melatonin production and changing sleep patterns. There is no question that all of us, but especially kids, are exposed to more screens late into the evening than was even possible fifteen years ago.
If our kid’s sleep is of such paramount importance to our community, we don’t need to wait for changes in school schedule to act. We can start now be educating kids about the possible risks of and remedies for nighttime screen time. That might mean significant personal and possibly curriculum changes need to be made, but it costs us essentially nothing and can potentially help many of us. We can do it in our own homes, and the City can help by promoting it in schools as a public health issue.
And if someone starts adjusting elementary school times, they should at the same time normalize kindergarten start and end times once and for all through uniform or whole day kindergarten, finally. That would free up a whole hidden block of start-end times and make it easier to schedule buses to other schools.
We love our kid’s teachers, but Newton Schools just drive me insane.
A lot of issues have to be considered when adjusting school times.
If the elementary school time returns to the the old 8:45 start time, many very young children will be in the position of having 5 transitions a day – from home; to before school care; to the school day; to aftercare; and back home again. And that will be under the best of circumstances. Under the worst of circumstances, young children will be left home alone until the start time because their parents can’t afford before and after school care, or the school schedule doesn’t fit into their work schedule.
If the end of the school day is too late for HS students, then they’ll have less access to after school contact with teachers and counselors. These relationships are vital to teenagers and to the HS experience, and often engage students who would otherwise see school as a place where they have no significant adult relationships .
This is a complex problem and the school committee needs to make decisions for students at all levels of the system and from all walks of life.
Let me just say this one more time for those who might have missed it… Sleep deprivation in teens has been definitively linked to stress, addiction, depression, and suicide. When the school system has a systemic issue of such consequence, and public officials fail to take corrective action, there is no other way to interpret that failure except dereliction of duty.
In my opinion, folks who want to make excuses for the Mayor and School Committee’s failure, do not adequately understand the severity of sleep deprivation in teens. But I invite you to show me any study–any medical or scientific evidence, that contradicts my long held position on this issue.
Lack of adequate sleep is a problem for adolescents, as is an excessive number of routine transitions for young children, or the real possibility that young children will be unsupervised. This is merely acknowledging that this is a complex problem and the concerns for students at all levels of the school system need to be addressed.
To the School Committee, having later high school start times is a necessity by the 2016-2017 school year starting date. There is nothing left to do but establish the time. The subject has been surveyed and talked to death. No solution will make everyone happy so do just your jobs, act responsibly and set a time.
I see two major issues here.
1. The school committee has to stop passing the buck and enact a solution. More time is not the problem; the SC not accepting responsibility and making a decision is.
From the Tab, “After months of feedback from stakeholders and more than a year of talks there is still no clear favorite among the options for later high school start times.”
2. It’s all about the money when it should be about the health of students. Here’s the clear solution from the Tab.
“The option to start at 8:30 a.m. had the most support from the survey, according to the memo released Dec. 12. The 8:30 option would allow for significant sleep benefits and a reasonable end time (possibly 3:45 p.m.). The major disadvantage would be the expense.”
Marti,
You nailed it! It is the cost and the more the school committee studies it, they delay the cost of the initiative.
I am very disappointed with this school committee. They have the opportunity to change the daily lives of the Newton teenagers and they continue to pass the buck. When is the next election?
This does seem to be an overly long and drawn out process. It’s like waiting the third night of a wake to start deciding whether the corpse will be buried or cremated.
The SC has an opportunity to leave a positive mark in the community. They can be remembered as the ones that implemented a wonderful idea as later start times for the high school students. This is not rocket science.
Marti, good post.
As Nike adds say: Just Do It.
I wish the working committee had put forward some meaningful & practical choices. I dont consider 20 min delayed start meaningful – just ask any high schooler or their parent. I also dont consider any end time later than 3:45 as practical due to sports.
I wish SC and the working committee considered some bold options – such as eliminating 2 weeks of vacation or cancelling Tue early release or starting school a week before Labor day. That would have given the option to actually have a meaningful options.
I think SC should remove some guard rails (see above) and come up with choices that we will truly impact quality of sleep for our children.
@Neil P– There’s a reason the School Committee did not propose “meaningful & practical” options. They never had any intention of changing high school start times. They were trying to appear as if they’re addressing the issue, but they’re really just buying time until the change in start times is mandated by the state.
Understand this about the School Committee… Every year they see the results of the NPS student stress survey. Year after year that survey indicates an epidemic level of stress among our high school students. Yet the School Committee is so disconnected from reality–so out of touch with the fact that sleep deprivation is a major contributing factor to stress, that they just keep kicking the can down the road.
Believe me… you’ve got to do a really poor job as an elected official before I stoop to name calling. It’s an admittedly childish tactic that I generally refrain from. But these folks on the School Committee have earned such disdain, I feel completely comfortable calling them out for being the group of pathetic losers that they are.