Start Times Debate Heats Up Ahead Of School Committee Forum

ANDOVER, MA — Wednesday, the School Committee will hold its third dedicated public forum on school start times, since they began examining possible changes to the schedule over a year ago. Members of the Committee maintain that early start times for middle and high schools are a public health problem, as adolescents have a delayed sleep cycle. But they face crystallizing opposition to the options currently on the table, heavily from the parents of elementary school students.

Survey results showed that the status quo was favored by majorities or large pluralities of elementary school teachers, students, and students' parents. And in the last week, Andover parent Kristin Kissane launched a petition to keep elementary school hours in place, which has gathered over 600 signatures in just a few days. Kissane, and signers of the petition, said that while they agree that the well-being of adolescents is important, they feel the younger kids have been left out of the occasion.

School Committee Chair Joel Blumstein said he knows that not everyone will be happy with whatever decision the committee ends up making, but they have a lot of things to balance.

"The key value is the health of the students," Blumstein said.

The forum is Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. in the Library/Media Center at Andover High School.

Other values the committee says it's considering include impacts on family schedules, extra-curriculars, and costs to both families and the district.

The options on the table so far are the no-cost options, noted school committee member Shannon Scully, a member of the start times working group. The existing options keep the basic format of start times in place but either flipping the elementary and secondary school times, or shifting the entire schedule later. Kissane said she'd like to see non-budget-neutral options, that add buses so that all grades can start in the eight o'clock hour; the district has a transportation study underway, to see what busing changes could achieve.

"We should have the results of the transportation study by the end of the month," said Blumstein, who noted that the district has not added a bus since 2013.

Scully outlined the public health research on start times, like the American Academy of Pedriatics' 2014 Policy Statement.

"The research is compelling that adolescent sleep cycles shift by 2 hours. It's a temporary phase of development where it's very difficult for middle and high school students to fall asleep much before 11 p.m., and it's hard to wake up much before 8 a.m.," Scully said. "The way to counter this chronic sleep deprivation is to delay start times until 8:30 or later."

Among the options on the table, adolescents and their parents were more evenly split between the three than the elementary school population, showing the majority wanted later start times but they had no particular preference on flipping versus shifting.

And elementary school parents said they accept the concern about adolescents.

"We're not disputing the research on the effects on adolescents, but we're basically trading one problem for another problem," Kissane said. "The flip option would have our youngest children beginning bus runs at 6:30 in the morning."

"If the majority of people want it to stay the same, and the school committee is still insistent on doing this, they should find it within themselves to make it work for everyone," Kissane said.

Of course, some people oppose any changes at all; while many signers of Kissane's petition wrote something like, "ALL students deserve the most beneficial learning experience possible," as Erin Adams did, there are exceptions.

"Times should not be changed for the older kids as jobs will not change start times to accommodate anyone’s 'sleep schedule'," wrote Kerri Miller.

Changing start times has become popular recently, with the state of California mandating high schools start no earlier than 8 a.m. just this week. A couple of dozen Massachusetts districts have adjusted start times, summarized by the School Committee alongside their start times FAQs.

Harvard sleep expert Judith Owens, who spoke to the school committee about start times, regularly talks to districts, Scully said.

"She's never heard a district say they wish they hadn't done it," Scully said.

Kissane noted that none of the districts had their elementary schools start quite as early as the flip option under consideration.

Christopher Huffaker: chris.huffaker@patch.com or 412-265-8353.