Should Wilmington Have Later School Start Times?

WILMINGTON, MA - There's been much debate about later school times across the state this year and superintendents in the area have been discussing just that.

Last week, the Wilmington School Committee lent their support to Wilmington's Superintendent of Schools Mary DeLai's signing of a joint statement that expresses their intent, together with other Middlesex League Superintendents, to engage in the necessary consensus building required to hopefully make a change to this long-standing practice, DeLai posted on the Wilmington Public School website.

DeLai says in her post the research is clear - "later school start times for middle school and high school students lead to better academic and behavioral outcomes. She cites the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report issued on August 7, 2015, where the authors noted that, 'adolescents who do not get enough sleep are more likely to be overweight; not engage in daily physical activity; suffer from depressive symptoms; engage in unhealthy risk behaviors such as drinking, smoking tobacco, and using illicit drugs; and perform poorly in school. However, insufficient sleep is common among high school students, with less than one third of U.S. high school students sleeping at least 8 hours on school nights.'"

She goes on to say "In 2014, the American Association for Pediatrics also urged middle and high schools to modify start times as a means to enable students to get adequate sleep and improve their health, safety, academic performance, and quality of life. This is not new information rather these reports confirm what numerous studies have demonstrated over many years."

"My intent is not to defend or promote any particular studies of this issue. Anyone with access to the internet can quickly find the growing body of research," DeLai says. "My review of the research makes it clear to me that if our job is to ensure the success of our students, it’s time to begin the conversation about later start times for our middle and high school students."

Over the past few months, the Middlesex League Superintendents have been meeting to discuss how they can best support their students with respect to school start times, DeLai goes on to say. "One of the most common barriers cited in discussions of delayed start times is difficulty in scheduling after-school activities, particularly athletics. By engaging in a collaborative effort with the districts with whom we compete in athletics, the hope is that we will successfully be able to address this obstacle."

DeLai's full post continues below:

This joint statement, which I have now signed, is not a promise or a commitment but rather a shared expression of our intentions to work to achieve the goal of having all Middlesex League high schools start between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. by the start of the 2018-19 school year with after-school competitions scheduled to ensure students do not routinely miss academic time.

In our community, I have also heard loud and clear that the Middle School start time is as much, if not more, of a concern. My intent is to seek community support to address school start times across the entire district over the next two to three years. In addition to start times, we also have the issue of alignment of start times between schools on each side of town. The current schedule limits opportunities for meaningful collaboration across all grade levels in the district.

One area that will certainly be impacted is transportation which is perhaps the most common barrier to delaying start times. Transportation is a complex and controversial topic. It is a budgetary challenge, particularly in our community. As a school district, we spend nearly one million dollars per year transporting students. Some may be aware that Massachusetts statutes require that school districts transport only students in grades K-6 who reside two miles or more from the school they attend. In Wilmington, our policies are far more generous. All kindergarten students are transported, regardless of where they live. In addition, all students in grades 1-8 living more than one and one-half miles from the school attended are entitled to transportation service as are all students in grades 9-12 living more than two miles from the high school. Without a doubt, changing school start times will impact the transportation budget. The cost will not be insignificant and will likely cost hundreds of thousands, not tens of thousands of dollars. In order to absorb that type of budgetary impact, there will need to be discussions about transportation services.

It is our intent to engage all stakeholders in a series of public conversations about the different options that could be implemented to address our mutual concerns. We will offer multiple means for constituents to provide input and feedback. We intend to provide as much information as possible and are open to evaluating multiple scenarios in our quest for the ideal solution. We recognize that there will be a significant impact on the members of our employee associations and we are committed to ensuring that their voices are heard and their concerns are addressed. Extensive community input will be critical to the success of identifying and implementing the right solution for all.

We anticipate that this process will begin in earnest this coming fall. We recognize that this process will take time. We have no interest in making any hasty decisions. It is for that reason that we have given ourselves at least one full year to engage in thoughtful dialogue around this issue. What we ask from members of our school community and greater community is to keep an open mind, educate yourself on the issues, and be respectful in voicing your informed concerns and opinions. These types of difficult community conversations and decisions have the ability to divide a community or bring it closer together. My hope is the latter as I believe that we all share one important mutual concern and that is the future success of the children in our community. Let that be what guides us as we boldly go where few have been willing to go.

What do you think? Do you think Wilmington middle and high school students will benefit from later school start times? Tell us in the comments section below.