Should Issaquah students be sleeping in later for their health? Maybe, but it won’t be happening this fall.

In a letter sent out to families in the Issaquah School District Tuesday morning, Superintendent Ron Thiele announced that the Issaquah School Board would not consider a revised school schedule for the 2016/2017 school year, due to the lack of “consensus or a clear majority” of community favor for the plan. Staff are working on a new plan to be considered for the 2017/2018 school year.

The schedule proposed by district staff in fall 2015, at Thiele’s direction, essentially reversed the schedules of the district’s elementary and secondary schools. Middle and high school students would have begun their day at 9 a.m. and ended close to 4 p.m., while elementary students would have begun and ended their days approximately 90 minutes earlier.

The schedule had been developed in response to a petition asking for later high school start times. But over late 2015 and early 2016, the plan received a wave of criticism from parents, teachers and students who came to speak out at school board meetings and on an online survey.

“While many of you in our community believe that the current start times at our secondary schools are too early, many also believe that ending secondary schools at nearly 4 p.m. is too late,” Thiele said. “The worry … is the potential negative impact on students’ ability to work after school, provide child care for their younger siblings, or participate in after school activities.”

Parents of elementary school students likewise did not agree with the plan to start their children’s days more than an hour earlier and asked for a more moderate plan, Thiele said.

Not mentioned in the letter is the testimony of several secondary school teachers who opposed the later schedules at recent meetings. Skyline High School IB English teacher Elizabeth Lund told school board members Jan. 13 that she would be forced to consider leaving the district to avoid doubling her commute time.

Thiele has expressed sympathy for the dilemma at public meetings, blaming the high cost of living for the Issaquah area.

“Half of our employees have to commute in,” Thiele said at a joint meeting of the School Board and Issaquah City Council Monday night. “It’s not just a traffic or transportation issue, it’s an affordable housing issue.”

A more moderate school schedule proposal is expected to be complete by spring and voted on by December 2016.