PARIS — Members of the SAD 17 Board Curriculum Committee, told the full board at last week’s meeting that they are looking into the effects of a later start time for students.

“This is just research. We are not changing bus schedules or start times,” Curriculum Committee Chairman Ann Macro emphasized to the board. “We are just seeing if it is feasible for our district. We have taken on this challenge.”

Curriculum Director Heather Manchester told the Advertiser Democrat that the issue was raised by a board member and the committee has been reading articles and studying literature about the effect of early school starts on students.

“We looked at information from the American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) and the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), in addition to newspaper articles from local schools [largely in the southern part of the state] that have either adopted a later start or are in the process of implementing a late start,” she said.

In a 2014 policy statement issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics that the Curriculum Committee reviewed, the organization said studies show adolescents who don’t get enough sleep often suffer physical and mental health problems and a decline in academic performance, along with other issues.

Based on those studies, the academy released a new recommendation that recommends middle and high schools delay the start of class to 8:30 a.m. or later.

In SAD 17, the high school starts at 7:25 a.m. and middle school starts at 7:23 a.m. Elementary schools begin school at 8:40 a.m.

“Doing so will align school schedules to the biological sleep rhythms of adolescents, whose sleep-wake cycles begin to shift up to two hours later at the start of puberty,” the academy wrote in its policy statement.

The report went on to say that “many studies have documented that the average adolescent in the U.S. is chronically sleep-deprived and pathologically sleepy.”

A National Sleep Foundation poll found 59 percent of sixth- through eighth-graders and 87 percent of high school students in the U.S. were getting less than the recommended 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep on school nights.

In another article reviewed by the curriculum committee, the National Sleep Foundation said the problem of sleep deprivation includes lack of enough hours of quality sleep, hectic schedules with after school activities and jobs, homework hours and family obligations and a clash between societal demands, such as early school start times and biological changes that put most teens on a later sleep-wake clock.

“As a result, when it is time to wake up for school, the adolescent’s body says it is still the middle of the night, and he or she has had too little sleep to feel rested and alert,” the article stated.

The result, states the National Sleep Foundation, is sleep deprivation impairs young people’s ability to be alert, pay attention, solve problems, cope with stress and retain information and it causes other problems.

“The research presented by the AAP and NSF is very compelling in favor of a later start for adolescents,” Manchester said.

Curriculum committee members said in a report given to the full committee that they have learned that a number of obstacles stand in the way of transitioning to a later start including busing. Because the SAD 17 geographical area is so large and the school buses are currently full, committee members have already learned it will take an additional 10 buses to get the plan going.

Other issues linger such as the impact on after school sports program, concern about time enough for academics, how would teachers feel about it and what the busing issues such as little kids and older students being bused together.

“We have more questions than answers right now. Depending on what we decide, we may need to look at the ripple effects across the district and go from there,” Manchester told the Advertiser Democrat. 

ldixon@sunmediagroup.net

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