Issaquah School District nears finish line on setting school start times

The Issaquah School Board is preparing to make a decision on later bell times for secondary school students. But they’ll have to wait until citizens have had their say.

That milestone is arriving quickly: The Issaquah School District’s survey of community opinions on later school start times closes Sunday, Feb. 14 and results could be available as early as Feb. 22, Superintendent Ron Thiele said.

In January, the district asked community members to submit their opinions on a proposal to move high school and middle school start times to 9 a.m. or later, while moving morning start times for lower grades to 8 a.m.

That survey collected about 5,000 opinions, Thiele said. Starting Friday, Feb. 5, the district asked community members to assign one- to five-star ratings to the opinions that were most important to them, placing quantitative values on the submissions.

Those results could help sway the Issaquah School Board one way or the other on a decision to act on a proposal to start school at 9 a.m. or later for high school and middle school students, and 8 a.m. for lower grade levels.

Thiele noted during a discussion on the proposal at the Jan. 27 School Board meeting that the decision forces the board to weigh potential improvements to student health on one hand and factors like associated costs and teacher retention on the other.

Bussing costs were a huge consideration for staff as they developed a plan for later school start times. The district keeps its transportation costs down by using a “tier” system that allows fewer drivers in fewer buses to take on multiple routes, Thiele said.

“By using a tiered bus schedule, the district has been able to save millions,” Thiele said.

The district’s current proposal for later school start times would eliminate the smallest portion of the tier system at a cost of $650,000. Eliminating the tier system altogether would require the district to purchase new buses and construct a new transportation center, Thiele said, adding that the district would also face the challenge of hiring more drivers for shorter, and therefore lower-paying, shifts.

Teacher retention will also likely be a large consideration in the board’s decision. Roughly half the district’s teachers live outside the school district and could be tempted to find employment elsewhere if their commutes became too difficult — which wouldn’t be good considering the district is already challenged to fill all of its certificated positions, Thiele said.

In recent school board meetings, most of the testimony from parents and students opposed to later bell times has focused on how the later closing bell for school would take away part of the afternoon, causing scheduling conflicts for students with after-school jobs, advanced homework or obligations to sports and clubs.

But School Board Director Marnie Maraldo countered the problem could be that students are pressured to take on too many after-school activities, comparing common homework and extracurricular workloads to the equivalent of an eight-hour workday immediately following school.

“[The debate] tells me the community isn’t ready to give up any of that eight hours that they’re asking their kids to do,” Maraldo said. “And they say, ‘Well, go to bed earlier.’ But the studies are clear. … You can go to bed at 10 p.m., that doesn’t mean you go to sleep.”

Fellow board member Harlan Gallinger agreed. Pointing to the district’s most recent Healthy Youth Survey data, which showed higher-than-average rates of depression in Issaquah students, Gallinger posited that forcing students to choose between after-school activities within a more limited timeframe could ultimately be healthier for their mental well-being.