Guilford - on Wednesday - Tackles School Start Time Issue Head On

GUILFORD, CT - This Wednesday the Guilford school community will once again take on the difficult issue of considering pushing back start times at the high school in an effort to give teens more sleep time before starting their day.

It is an issue that the town has been studying for years - and one that Board of Education Chairman William Bloss has called “the most difficult” one he’s taken on in his tenure as board chairman.

A special meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 23rd at the Community Center on Church Street to receive public input on school start times.

Guilford school offficials released this statement about the meeting.

“Guilford Public Schools (GPS) has been studying options to delay the high school start times since 2014 based on community interest and research that shows physical and mental health benefits and increases in academic performance in students who get more sleep.

“The Guilford Board of Education and Guilford Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Paul Freeman convened a School Start Times Task Force (StartForce) in Fall 2017 to study options for implementation of later school start times. This group includes membership from the administration, Board of Education, teachers, parents, students, and experts. StartForce presented an interim report to the Board of Education on April 23, 2018.
“Public input on the suggestions made by StartForce in their interim report and all questions and comments related to school start times are welcome and encouraged on May 23rd.”

The meeting comes on the heels of a recently submitted report by the task force which has been studying the subject of earlier school start times - specifically at the high school - to allow students more sleep time.

The report said while the task force "has not reached consensus on the optimal timing of any intervention" it is recommending the following:

-- striving to achieve a Guilford High School start time of not earlier than 7:55 a.m. by the fall of 2019;

-- considering a move of the current high school start time from 7:25 a.m. to 7:40 a.m. for the fall of 2018, with an end time of 2:18 p.m. - to be accomplished by: sliding current start (and end) times 10 minutes later for Baldwin (7:50 to 8:00), Adams (8:00 to 8:10), and elementary schools (9:00 to 9:10); shortening the passing time at GHS from six to five minutes resulting in shortening the high school day by five minutes.

-- prioritizing busing efficiencies and examining routes to ensure students are not dropped off any earlier than necessary before the start of the school day.

The task force said it "hopes to offer ongoing collaboration and communication with the Board of Education regarding possible avenues to achieve further interventions that may allow achievement of later start time by 2019."

The task force added that in a newsletter from Superintendent of Schools Paul Freeman last fall the possibility of reorganizing middle schools in a North/South configuration was mentioned, which would significantly impact busing consideration for school start times.

The task force said it would like emphasize that the North/South plan "is not part of any task force recommendation. However, direction from the Board of Education/administration on whether this might be considered for 2019 would be important for any further options/recommendations."The task force concluded that it "will continue to explore other options that would allow moving GHS start time to 7:55 a.m. Such options may include busing efficiencies, tiers of busing, reorganization of the middle schools, switching order in which schools start, and other potential options that may be feasible and acceptable."

The Board of Education and school officials have been studying the issue of later start times for years - stating that numerous studies have shown that especially for high school students more sleep is needed and better prepare students for the school day.

But the issue is so difficult because it gets into such issues as finances, bus schedules, parent workday schedules, sports' teams schedules, extracurricular activities, conflicting schedules of neighboring towns' schools, etc.

Several towns in Connecticut in recent years have made the leap to later start time, but many more have studied the issue, and not.

The full report of the committee can be read here: http://www.guilfordschools.org/ourpages/auto/2015/12/2/34367934/StartForce%20Interim%20Report%204-23-18.pdf

What isn’t in dispute is that high school kids would benefit if they could get more sleep before attending classes.

Educators and officials are nearly unanimous in believing that teenage children would be better students if high school classes started later in the morning.

Study after study shows that students, especially as they get older, need more sleep. Those studies are what educators constantly refer to when they tackle the issue of trying to change school start times.
But that’s where the hard part starts.

One of the biggest advocates in Guilford for later school start times has been Dr. Craig Canapari, a parent and director of the Yale Pediatric Sleep Center.

In his practice, he treats teens whose biggest problem is a lack of sleep, Canapari said, which can lead to anxiety, depression, poor impulse control, emotional problems and decreased motivation.

Surveys show that less than 10 percent of high school students get the 9-10 recommended hours of sleep, Canapari said, and sleep deprivation increases the likelihood of car accidents, the biggest cause of death for teens.

Twelve years ago, the town of Wilton switched start times at its middle and high schools from 7:35 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. for students in grades 6 to 12. Elementary school students in Wilton switched to the earliest time start slot – 7:35 a.m.

Besides Guilford, school officials in Bridgeport, Cheshire, Greenwich, Ridgefield, Westport and West Hartford, among others, have held various level of discussion on the issue.

Local school officials believe changing school start times might be easier accomplished if the state took the lead.

But Rep. Andrew Fleischmann, co-chairman of the legislature’s Education Committee, said in an interview on the subject last year that the state has struggled with the same complex issues local officials have in looking at the issue.

“The issue of changing school start times has been around for years,’’ Fleischmann, a Democrat from West Hartford, said in the interview.“It would certainly benefit the entire state of Connecticut if we could simply flip all the high school starting times to later times and all the elementary school starting times to early times.”

But it isn’t that easy.

“The logistics are incredibly complex,’’ Fleischmann said. “And then you have the issue of the bus contracts. There are just so many impacted parties.’’

But Fleischmann said education officials aren’t ready to throw in the towel “on what obviously is the right thing to do.’’

Fleischmann said having school districts in a particular region of the state look at the issue at the same time is a course of action that could be pursued.

“You have to start somewhere,’’ he said. “Taking this region by region is one approach to push the agenda forward.’’