Manatee County School Board to discuss potentially starting schools later
BRADENTON -- In line with research that says students who get a full night of sleep will perform better academically, the Manatee County School Board will take the very first preliminary step in the process of potentially changing school start times on Tuesday.
Although research makes a good argument for starting schools later in the morning, particularly at the high school level to allow teens more sleep in the morning, logistics and long-standing practices -- like athletics or after-school jobs -- can often keep school districts from making the change.
On Tuesday, the Manatee County School Board will take a look at some of those factors, which include: transportation, athletics, family responsibilities and part-time job flexibility and availability.
"We need to look into the possibility of reacting to that research for the benefit of our high school students," board member Charie Kennedy said. Kennedy, a former Manatee High School teacher, requested the workshop for the board.
The board is not expected to take any immediate action during the workshop.
Right now, three high schools in Manatee County start at 7:15 a.m. and three start at 7:30 a.m.. All six traditional high schools let out at 2:05 p.m. Elementary schools run from 8:30 a.m. to 2:50 p.m. and the middle schools run from 9:20 a.m. to 3:40 p.m.
The conversation about moving to later start times started last spring, when the school board approved allowing three of the district high schools to start 15 minutes earlier in the morning, so the schools could switch from a "block" schedule to a "skinny" schedule." Making the switch meant the schools needed some more time to allow students to pass through the hallways, and the easiest way to add the time was to add it in the morning.
"This is sort of a fix for a problem," board chair Bob Gause said in the spring of adding the 15 minutes for the high school start time. "but I think we'd all like to take a holistic look at it."
Members of the public and even some members of the board lamented having to add the minutes in the morning, knowing that often, high school kids aren't going to bed at the proper time and are often groggy and not ready for school during the day because of the early hours.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recognizes a number of factors that keep kids from getting the proper amount of sleep but also identifies changing school start times as a fixable step to help alleviate the issue.
"A substantial body of research has now demonstrated that delaying school start times is an effective countermeasure to chronic sleep loss and has a wide range of potential benefits to students with regard to physical and mental health, safety, and academic achievement," a 2014 study commissioned by the academy reports.
The study is part of the board agenda for Tuesday, although with a number of potential options for the district to consider, including: flipping when elementary and high school start times, starting middle and high school at the same time or potentially transporting and starting all the students at the same time.
Transportation issues will likely be one of the biggest obstacles if the board wanted to move forward with the issue. Because of staffing issues, the transportation department may not be able to accommodate transporting multiple school levels at the same time because of a lack of drivers and buses.
"Right now, we have enough buses to do a three-tier system," said Jason Harris, the director of transportation.
Harris said he wanted to provide options for the district to look at as to how busing could work if the board wanted to pursue some type of charge. There are 216 buses in the district fleet right now. All the district's bus drivers have at least two routes -- some combination of an elementary, middle and high school route in the morning and afternoon -- and the majority of drivers drive three routes a day.
To the south, in Sarasota County, most elementary schools start between 8:15 and 8:30 a.m. and let out at 3 or 3:15 p.m. Most Sarasota County Middle Schools run from 9:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m, and high schools run from 7:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.
In Sarasota County, additional tax money from voters supports having longer instructional time for students as well.
Meghin Delaney, education reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7081. Follow her on Twitter@MeghinDelaney.
This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Manatee County School Board to discuss potentially starting schools later ."