The Issaquah School District announced Nov. 10 that Superintendent Ron Thiele’s previously proposed bell times will become official throughout the district beginning with the 2017-2018 school year.

The new schedule will shift regular high school and middle school start and end times approximately half an hour later than the current times, and will unite all elementary schools apart from Grand Ridge under one 9:10 a.m. start time, instead of the current staggered 8:30 a.m. and 9:15 a.m. start times.

The regular school day for high schools will start at 8 a.m. and finish at 2:52 p.m., the middle schools’ day will go from 8:10 a.m. to 2:35 p.m. and the elementary schoolers will attend class from 9:10 a.m. to 3:35 p.m. Grand Ridge Elementary School will run from 8:55 a.m. to 3:20 p.m.

Thiele had put out a proposal of the bell times on Oct. 25, allowing parents, staff and students to share their thoughts with him through Nov. 7. Thiele received hundreds of emails within just the first few days of this comment period, and told the Reporter that the feedback was mostly positive.

The proposed bell times were based on eighteen months of deliberation on the topic, which included receiving input from district residents through a series of meetings and the district’s online Thought Exchange this past spring.

“I really do view this option as a good compromise that will give students more sleep,” Thiele said.

The idea behind having school start later is to give teenagers, whose bodies, studies show, are naturally wired to stay up later at night, more time for rest.

“We talk a a lot about drugs and alcohol, exercise … sleep is another factor we need to be talking about,” Thiele said. “It’s a good community conversation.”

The district had been discussing later start times for schools since the early 2000s, but the discussion especially increased after the American Academy of Pediatrics released a study in 2014 recommending that high schools and middle schools start after 8:30 a.m. to allow teenagers a healthy amount of sleep. The Center for Disease Control and American Medical Association have also advocated later start times.

“I do believe our kids would benefit from more sleep,” Thiele said. “I think it would be healthier.”

A press release put out on Nov. 10 by the district stated that the bell times may be changed slightly depending on transportation issues, but “no school will start earlier than 8:00 a.m. or end later than 4:00 p.m.”