The Issaquah School District is currently looking to change start and end times for elementary, middle and high schools beginning in the 2017-18 school year.
A new proposal the district put out in May would see the first bell of the day pushed back about half an hour for middle and high schools, and would unite all elementary schools under one common schedule.
Talk of changing the schedule began after the American Academy of Pediatrics released a study in 2014 recommending that middle and high schools start after 8:30 a.m. to allow teenage students eight-and-a-half to nine-and-a-half hours of sleep. According to the study, students who get too little sleep are more likely to perform poorly in school, suffer from obesity and eating disorders, not exercise, and take alcohol, drugs and tobacco.
Just last week, the American Medical Association was the latest group to advocate later school start times at its annual meeting.
Allowing youth to sleep a little longer with a later school schedule is “a growing movement in the country,” said L. Michelle, the Issaquah School District communications director.
“The rhythm of teen sleep patterns is to go to bed later and get up later,” she said. “When you hit puberty, it’s hard to fall asleep before 11 p.m.” To meet a 7:25 a.m. start time, kids may only be getting six-and-a-half or fewer hours of sleep.
“I see students along the Issaquah-Hobart Road at 6:30 a.m.,” said Issaquah School District Superintendent Ron Thiele. “Kids generally come into school very tired.”
In response to the study, as well as to the many parents and community members requesting a change to the current timetable, the district put out a proposal last autumn that dramatically altered bell times. According to this proposal, the high school start time would be shifted from 7:25 a.m. to 9 a.m., and the middle school’s time from 7:40 a.m. to 9:10 a.m. This would have the schools finishing at 3:55 p.m. and 3:35 p.m. respectively, instead of at their current end times of 2:16 p.m. and 2:05 p.m.
Inversely, the elementary schools’ start times would be shifted forward to 8 a.m., an entire hour before the older kids. The elementary schools currently begin at 8:30 a.m. and 9:15 a.m., depending on the school.
Many elementary school parents did not appreciate the younger children being forced to get up sooner so the older ones could sleep in.
“It’s way too early,” wrote one parent on Thought Exchange, an online forum that the district set up over the winter so that district residents could share their views on the proposal. “I would prefer them to get a good, long sleep to help them grow. They need at least 11 to 12 hours of sleep per day, and bringing the bell time ahead isn’t going to help.”
Participants gave this thought the highest number of stars in the entire exchange.
“Please don’t make the little kids pay for the older kids’ accommodation,” wrote another community member.
Other parents and students pointed out that a late release time for highschoolers would push after-school activities, especially jobs, too late, which could create problems for employers and cut into family time at home. They also remarked that this would have more kids getting home in the dark during the winter months.
“How many districts that [switch to late start times] are at the 47th parallel?” Thiele said, explaining why it is harder for northern districts like Issaquah to make this change than for districts in southern states.
A difference of at least an hour is required between the start times of the two older schools and the elementary school, and a 40-minute difference is needed between their end times, according to Michelle. This is because the same buses and drivers who ferry the high schoolers and middle schoolers also drive the elementary students, a system that, in Thiele’s words, “maximizes our bus system.”
Having all of the students start at one common time would “cost much more,” Michelle said. “We would have to have more buses — we would need more runs to get the students to the buildings.” Right now, each bus run costs an average of $24,371. The district website estimates that 61 new buses at a cost of $115,000 each would be needed. In addition, new land for extra bus parking spaces would be required, as well as new drivers.
Taking the citizen comments into account, Thiele and his team of bus transportation experts went back to the drawing board and in May came up with what he calls a “more reasonable” proposal. In this plan, the high school would start at 8 a.m. and finish at 2:52 p.m., the middle school’s day would go from 8:10 a.m. to 2:35 p.m. and the elementary schoolers would all go from 9:10 a.m. to 3:35 p.m.
There have been three community meetings discussing the ideas, but Thiele said that he hasn’t heard any strong opinions in approval or disproval of the suggested schedule. “My gut is that people are thinking, ‘this is doable,'” Thiele said. “There’s a saying that if nobody likes it, then you probably have a good compromise.” Thiele said the plan is to “come back in the fall and revisit it.” His goal is to make a decision by December, to give parents enough time to arrange matters such as child care before the following school year.
