Start Times Changing At Pennsbury Schools

FAIRLESS HILLS, PA — After seven years of debate, the Pennsbury School District is moving back start times for some students to promote health based on studies it has conducted.

That means a little more sleep before the school bell rings each day, school officials said.

Last spring, the Pennsbury School Board approved moving forward with time changes for Pennsbury High School and Pennsbury Middle Schools, beginning in September.

The new school year starts for kindergarten, 6th-and-9th-grade students with orientation on Tuesday, Sept. 2. All students start school on Wednesday, Sept. 3.

Schools Superintendent Thomas A. Smith said that the school district has investigated changing school start times since 2018, especially starting high school later.

The superintendent said the move is being made due to an "increasing body of research" that indicates high school students benefit from starting school after 8 a.m.

The study comes from a pediatrician with Princeton Nassau Pediatrics who is chairman of the department of pediatrics for Penn Medicine Princeton Health and chairman of the Task Force on Adolescent Sleep and School Start Times for the New Jersey Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The new times have changed for the start of school, half-day dismissals, and two-hour delays:

Elementary Schools (No Change)

• Regular: 9 a.m. – 3:40 p.m.
• Half-Day Dismissal: 9 a.m. – 11:50 a.m.
• Two-Hour Delay: 11 a.m. – 3:40 p.m.

Middle School

• Regular: 7:35 a.m. – 2:20 p.m.
• Half-Day Dismissal: 7:35 a.m. – 10:20 a.m.
• Two-Hour Delay: 9:35 a.m. – 2:20 p.m.

High School

• Regular: 8:15 a.m. – 2:58 p.m.
• Half-Day Dismissal: 8:15 a.m. – 11:05 a.m.
• Two-Hour Delay: 10:15 a.m. – 2:58 p.m.