Teens sleep later than younger students. Will Wake change school times to reflect that?
Updated April 6 with school board vote.
Wake County may change school start times to let high school students sleep in later, but it would also lead to changes in time for the district’s younger students.
Wake County school administrators on March 16 presented three options that would upend the traditional school bell schedule that has high schools start at 7:25 a.m., middle schools at 8:15 a.m. and elementary schools at 9:15 a.m. High schools could potentially switch to starting 30 minutes later or nearly three hours later.
For now, administrators recommended leaving bell schedules unchanged for the 2021-22 school year, with the exception of moving Fuquay-Varina High School back to its 7:25 a.m. start time. But administrators said they’d work with the school board to potentially overhaul the bell schedules for the 2022-23 school year.
“Some science is emerging that teenagers — middle and high school students — do better in school if they start later,” said Superintendent Cathy Moore. “There are a lot of implications of that for us because of the size of the district.”
The school board approved the recommended bell schedules on April 6.
Wake uses a three-tier system in which the same bus makes multiple runs in the morning and afternoon. This reduces the number of buses that are needed.
But Wake’s policy putting high schools on the first tier has drawn complaints for years from teens and their parents. It goes against recommendations from groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics to delay start times for middle schools and high schools to 8:30 a.m. because teenagers have a hard time falling asleep before 11 p.m. the night before.
Some districts have already shifted their schedules to have high schools start later. In 2017, Durham Public Schools flipped its schedules to start elementary schools earlier at 7:45 a.m. and high schools later at 9 a.m.
The Wake school board had called in 2019 for a review of start times. David Neter, the chief operating officer, said they had been set to give the presentation in March 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic had struck.
Different options for later high school start
Neter laid out three options for changing start times that he said don’t require significant additional funding:
▪ Option 1 is keep the current 3-tier system but shifting start times 30, 45 or 60 minutes later.
For instance, a 60-minute later start time would have high schools run from 8:25 a.m. to 3:20 p.m.. Middle schools would run from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and elementary schools from 10:15 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.
▪ Option 2 is to swap the tier assignments for elementary and high schools. Elementary schools would run from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and high schools from 9:15 a.m. to 4:10 p.m.
▪ Option 3 is a combination of the first two options that would start school later and have elementary schools on the first tier and high schools on the third.
For instance, a 30-minute shift would have elementary schools run from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., middle schools from 8:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and high schools from 9:45 a.m. to 4:40 p.m.
A 60-minute shift would have elementary schools run from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., middle schools from 9:15 a.m. to 4 p.m. and high schools from 10:15 a.m. to 5:10 p.m.
In addition to giving teens more sleep, school board vice chairwoman Lindsay Mahaffey said changing times would help families who now have to pay for additional childcare costs for elementary students.
Administrators say there’s a fourth option of having all schools start at the same time. But Neter said it would require $135 million to buy additional buses and $116 million a year for things such as hiring more bus drivers and paying for extra maintenance and fuel costs.
Wake already has challenges trying to recruit enough bus drivers.
Community, staff input needed
Any bell schedules changes would have major implications for the community.
Schedules would change for school employees and parents. Before school and afterschool child care providers would be impacted.
Other major afterschool changes could affect school athletics and student jobs.
Administrators say the changes are so significant that the district will want to get community and staff feedback before making any changes.
School board member Jim Martin also urged the district to talk with students.
“This is a decision that very clearly we need to listen to students because this should be at least as much a student voice as it is adults trying to decide what they think is best,” Martin said.
Under a potential timeline, staff will spend May through August seeing how a bell schedule change would impact athletics, extracurricular activities and childcare providers.
The next few months would also see school board discussion and community and staff forums and surveys.
If things proceed, the board could discuss early next year making changes for the 2022-23 school year bell schedules.
This story was originally published March 16, 2021 at 3:53 PM with the headline "Teens sleep later than younger students. Will Wake change school times to reflect that?."
