By Maddie Lamonica, News Editor
In response to the push for earlier start times and growing research on the importance of adolescent sleep, the TESD Education Committee will conduct a sleep study in order to evaluate changes to school start times.
“School start times have been a growing conversation in the country,” Education Committee member Kyle Boyer said. “Several local districts are now reviewing their start times as well, and our state senator Andy Dinniman got the State Senate Education Committee to initiative a study of sleep and start times as well. We’re really following what has become a growing national trend.”
The sleep study’s goal is to assess the impact of potential strategies addressing adolescent sleep needs, including the monetary, transportation and scheduling implications for school start times. The Education Committee uses data from the American Academy of Pediatric Medicine and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, both of which have released research that suggest adolescents naturally go to sleep and wake later than adults and that later start times will help them keep healthy circadian rhythms and receive the recommended eight to ten hours of sleep a night.
“The goal of moving start times back would be to align with all of the research that says the biological clock of teenagers isn’t set for school to start at 7:20 a.m. Any decision would be about setting up students for physical, mental, and emotional success–both over the short term and long term,” Boyer said.
At the Education Committee meeting on Nov. 8, members presented four different modes of changing start times as possible options. Possibilities include eliminating tiers of busing, in which all eight schools would start at 8:30 a.m.; compacting tiers, which would allow for the middle and high schools to start 15-20 minutes later; shifting tiers, where all schools would start later but with the same amount of time in between them; and re-ordering tiers, in which the elementary schools would have the earliest start time and the high school the latest. The final recommendation may incorporate parts of the multiple possibilities.
Regardless of any possible changes, the Education Committee established that all schools must maintain the current number of instructional minutes each day, with each level of schools starting at the same time and no earlier than 7:45 a.m.
According to Boyer, once the committee reaches a decision based on both expert and community input, the plan will be presented to the school board for a final vote. The date of the decision is not yet known.
“Our hope is to get this change done sooner rather than later,” Boyer said. “Any approved change would be put in place for the following school year.”
