High Schools Will Start 45 Minutes Later Next Year

Starting next August, the district’s eight high schools will begin at 8:30 a.m. instead of 7:45 a.m., after the school board voted 6–1 on Tuesday night. The decision ends nearly two years of debate, surveys and public hearings, and it makes the district one of the largest in the state to push back its first bell for teenagers.

Board members pointed to studies showing that teenagers who sleep more do better in class and get into fewer car crashes. The change will affect about 11,000 high school students, along with thousands of younger children whose schedules will shift to make the new times work.

A long road to the vote

The proposal first came before the board two years ago, after a group of parents and pediatricians presented a petition with more than 3,000 signatures. The board formed a committee of teachers, parents, students, bus drivers and coaches to study the idea, and the committee spent most of last year reviewing research, surveying families and modeling new bus routes.

In the district’s survey, a majority of high school parents and an even larger share of students said they supported a later start. Teachers were more divided, with some welcoming more alert students in first period and others worried about later afternoons and longer commutes home. Elementary parents were the most skeptical, largely because of what a later high school start would mean for their own children.

Tuesday’s meeting drew more than 200 people. Speakers lined up for nearly two hours, and the board took its vote shortly after 10 p.m.

What the research says

Board members who supported the change said the science of adolescent sleep was the deciding factor. During the teenage years, the body’s internal clock shifts later, making it hard for many teens to fall asleep before 11 p.m. Pediatricians and national health groups have long recommended that middle and high schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. so that students can get the eight to ten hours of sleep that teenagers generally need.

Supporters cited research linking later start times to better attendance, fewer tardies, improved mood and fewer car crashes among teen drivers. Several speakers on Tuesday, including two local pediatricians, said they regularly see exhausted teens in their offices and that early bells make the problem worse.

We are asking 15-year-olds to do calculus at an hour when their brains are still asleep. That has to change.

Board member Lisa Trent

Trent, a former high school math teacher, said she had watched first-period students struggle for years. “I could always tell which class met at 7:45,” she said during the meeting. “Half of them were physically present and mentally somewhere else.”

The tradeoffs

Elementary schools will start earlier to share buses, and after-school sports will end later. Some parents worry about younger kids waiting at bus stops in the dark. The district operates a single fleet of buses that runs multiple routes each morning, and moving high schools later means moving another group of schools earlier.

Under the plan approved Tuesday, most elementary schools will begin at 8:00 a.m., about 20 minutes earlier than now, and middle schools will move slightly later, to 9:00 a.m. District transportation staff estimate that some elementary students will be picked up before sunrise during the darkest weeks of December and January.

Concerns raised at the meeting

• Younger students waiting at bus stops before sunrise in winter
• Later practice times for sports, especially for away games
• Teenagers who work after school or care for younger siblings
• Child care costs for families whose schedules no longer line up
• Later dismissal for high school teachers with their own children

Board member Mark Haldane, who cast the lone vote against the change, said he supported the goal but not the timing. “I believe the research,” he said. “I just don’t think we have solved the bus problem, and I don’t want a seven-year-old standing on a dark corner because we moved too fast.”

How families can prepare

District officials said they will spend the coming months working through the details with families, coaches and employers. Superintendent Carol Westbrook said the district will add lighting and reflective signage at bus stops where needed and will review routes so that the youngest students have the shortest waits.

Athletics directors are working with the regional conference to adjust game times, and some practices may move to early mornings for teams that need more daylight. The district also plans to expand before-school programs at elementary schools for families who need care earlier in the day.

Pediatricians who spoke at the meeting cautioned that a later bell will only help if teenagers use the extra time to sleep. They encouraged families to keep a consistent bedtime, limit screens late at night and avoid caffeine in the afternoon. Parents with specific concerns about a child’s sleep should talk with their own doctor.

Key takeaway: High schools will start at 8:30 a.m. next August, elementary schools will start earlier, and the district has promised a year of planning to address bus stop safety and sports schedules.

What students are saying

Several students spoke at Tuesday’s meeting, and most supported the change. Junior Maya Castellano said she wakes up at 5:45 a.m. to catch her bus and often falls asleep during her first class. “I’m not lazy,” she told the board. “I just can’t fall asleep at 9 p.m. no matter how hard I try.”

Sophomore Elijah Brooks, who plays on the school’s soccer team, said he was willing to accept later practices in exchange for more sleep. “We already practice in the dark in November,” he said. “If I can actually stay awake in chemistry, that’s a trade I’ll take.” Several of his teammates stood behind him at the microphone and nodded along.

Student council president Hannah Liu presented the results of a student-run poll, in which a clear majority of respondents favored a later start. She also urged the board to involve students in planning the new schedule, including decisions about lunch periods and club meeting times. “We’re the ones who will live with this every day,” she said. “We want to help get it right.”

Others were less enthusiastic. Senior Jordan Price, who works evenings at a grocery store, said a later dismissal will make it harder to get to his shift on time. He asked the board to work with local employers on flexible scheduling for student workers.

What happens next

The district will publish proposed bus schedules in the spring and hold public meetings at each high school before the plan is finalized. Families will receive new pickup times by early summer, and the district plans to review the change after its first full year, with a report to the board on attendance, grades and transportation.

Westbrook said the district would also study how neighboring districts handled similar changes, including how they managed bus routes and after-school programs. “We are not the first district to do this, and we won’t be the last,” she said after the vote. “We want to learn from everyone who has gone before us so our families have as smooth a transition as possible.”

For now, the decision is made. Next fall, the first bell at the district’s high schools will ring 45 minutes later than it does today, and thousands of teenagers will find out whether that extra sleep makes the difference supporters believe it will.