Shawano School District officials are getting ready to reopen the delicate issue of whether school should start later so students can sleep longer.
Opposition from parents and others prompted administrators to postpone action last year after an ad hoc group recommended starting school 30 minutes later, primarily to help sleep-deprived high schoolers and middle schoolers.
Officials plan to restart the debate next month with a survey of parents throughout the school district.
District Superintendent Gary Cumberland said that while research shows students function better after a good night sleep, administrators also understand that changing routines would present challenges for many families, especially those with working parents.
“There are all those questions that we’re trying to work through,” Cumberland said. “Those are all questions that we hope we can get answered.”
After parents complete surveys next month, Shawano School Board members in March will discuss schedule changes that, if approved, would take effect with the new school year in September.
Among the options to be presented to parents: starting the school day 30 minutes later, or changing the school bus schedule so that high schoolers and middle schoolers are picked up later in the morning.
Some parents remain skeptical that any adjustments are warranted.
Wendy Powell, who has two daughters, ages 13 and 10, said she drops both children off at school each morning around 7 a.m. If school were delayed by 30 minutes, that would conflict with her schedule to arrive at work by 7:45 a.m.
“That’s going to be a problem with me,” she said.
Powell and her husband, Nathan, dismissed the argument that older students, in particular, need to sleep later in the day. Parents should require such students to go to bed earlier at night, Nathan Powell said, so that the students can arrive at school on time, just like adults going to work each morning.
“It comes down to the responsibility thing,” he said. “That’s how it’s going to work in the real world.”
School start times have been under close scrutiny nationally amid a growing body of research that suggests kids are suffering in their education and their health from school bells ringing as early as 7:30 a.m.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, for example, last year reported that starting the school day later for students at the high school and middle school levels would contribute to healthier sleep patterns, stronger academic performances, and a reduction in such secondary issues as obesity and depression. The report urged school administrators to implement changes allowing older students to catch up on their sleep.
“Delaying school start times not only results in a substantive increase in average sleep duration,” the report concluded, “but also has a significant positive effect on a variety of key outcomes.”
Such research is based on the fact that when children reach puberty and their bodies change, many tend to stay awake later at night, thereby requiring more bedtime in the morning to achieve the optimum eight to nine hours of sleep.
To consider the issue locally, Shawano school administrators last year impaneled an ad hoc group that included health care experts, parents, educators and others.
One member of the group, Jaime Bodden, director of the Shawano-Menominee Counties Health Department, said research has shown that early school hours contribute to sleep-deprivation issues that can lead students into a number of physical and mental health problems.
“We want to keep our kids safe and healthy, and have the best potential for academic achievement,” Bodden said. “Research points to school start times as a way our communities can do this.”
The ad hoc group last concluded that Shawano schools should start each day 30 minutes later, which meant pushing back the opening bell to 8 a.m. for high school and middle school, and to 8:45 a.m. for elementary school.
Under the district’s contract with Johnson Bus Co., buses deliver high school and middle school students first, before heading back out to pick up elementary school students. The ad hoc group found that it would cost about $200,000 to buy more buses so that all students could be picked up at the same time.
The 30-minute delay starting classes in the morning would have been accompanied by later dismissal times in the afternoon.
Administrators temporarily shelved the issue last spring after months of debate in which parents offered myriad arguments why reconfigured school schedules would disrupt family routines.
Susan Longmire, principal of St. James Lutheran School, serves on the ad hoc group because her parochial students ride buses with the public school students and would be affected by any new schedule. Longmire said she has heard no support among St. James parents for starting school later.
Such a change, Longmire said, would force some working parents to find day care for their kids in the morning because their work schedules would still require them to drop off their children early.
“It just doesn’t fit their lifestyle,” she said of the later start time.
Cumberland said administrators have studied the issues further and would invite parents in the survey to outline their thoughts or concerns in detail. Although the survey results will not be binding, Cumberland said it would weigh heavily on the board’s decision later.
He said the survey would be sent to each parent in email or an alternative format for those without email accounts.
“We really want to have input from our parents,” he said.
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