By Julian White-Davis, Director of Photography
The start of this school year has marked a change in the Seattle School District (SSD) that has set an example for school districts around the United States. The Seattle School Board and the Seattle community made the decision to change the start time of all of their secondary schools to 8:45 a.m. This decision has been made largely because of how the 8 a.m. start time interferes with the sleep cycles of high schoolers.
“We had a group of sleep experts and community members come to the school and talk to the school board about the circadian rhythm of adolescents and how it was important to align school start times to the normal circadian rhythm of adolescents,” said the Assistant Superintendent of Operations for the SSD, Pegi McEvoy, in an interview with a Riptide reporter. “The board said, ‘if we can do it, we will.’”
The circadian rhythm is sometimes called the “body clock.” It is a cycle that tells the body when to go to sleep, when to wake up, and when to eat, among other things. When something disrupts this rhythm, it can cause various mental health issues such as depression and bipolar disorder.
“We spent a year doing a feasibility study to see if it was even possible [to change the start time],” said McEvoy. “They voted on it that November and then told us we had six months to implement it. So we implemented it the following year.”
The SSD is still waiting to see the results of this change because it was only implemented this year. However at this point, the new system seems to be a success.
“Sleeping in definitely [is my favorite part]. I’m not waking up as early as I used to… now I’m waking up at like 7 or 7:20 a.m.,” said Skylar Simone, a current junior at West Seattle High School and a previous student of Vashon Island High School (VHS).
Considering the success thus far with the SSD, the Vashon school board is contemplating making the change here on the island. The novelty of this idea, however, means that the SSD are still making observations about the long-term effects of the change. They will be looking to see if there is a change in attendance, discipline rates, and grades.
According to principal Danny Rock, members of the “Leadership Team (Principals, Superintendent, Directors) are actively talking about the subject,” said Danny Rock, the principle at VHS.
Even though there is research and data pointing to the health benefits of pushing back the start time at VHS, there are various potential issues that have been brought up that need to be addressed before any changes can be made.
Changing the start time would impact community services that are based on the school schedule such as Swim Team, Vashon Allied Arts dance academy and before/after daycare, impacts on families that combine their commute to work with dropping their kids off at school, and impacts on commuting students because of ferry times.
“So, you can see that while this is supported by the research on how the sleep patterns of teens is connected to their brain development, versus younger children, there are a host of consideration before making any changes,” said Mr. Rock.
If the secondary school times were moved back, then the primary school could start time the same as the rest of the district. This would be convenient for parents to take all of their children to school at the same time, however it would also force the schools district to buy more busses to facilitate transporting all of the school district at once.
“If all the schools started at the same time… it would cost us $150 thousand to $200 thousand annually in extra drivers/buses,” said Mr. Rock. “We are having trouble adequately staffing our current runs, so no matter what, we’re talking two different start times.”
The SSD solved this problem by moving the primary schools’ start time earlier to 7:55 a.m., so that there were two separate bus runs and the school district didn’t need to hire more bus drivers to accommodate both primary and secondary schools at once.
One reason for moving back the secondary school time and making the primary school time earlier is because teenagers teenagers biologically have trouble going to bed early enough to get a sufficient amount of sleep. So by making them wake up early, it is cutting their sleep cycle short.
According to the UCLA Health website, whose work was developed by Dr. Ronald Harper, “there is a shift in the timing of your circadian rhythms. Before puberty, your body makes you sleepy around 8:00 or 9:00 p.m.. When puberty begins, this rhythm shifts a couple hours later. Now, your body tells you to go to sleep around 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. …While they begin going to sleep later, they still need an average of nine hours of sleep at night.”
Now it’s time for the school district and community to decide whether or not this change is possible on Vashon.
“We are open to the possibility (as a Leadership Team), but will move carefully, transparently, and sensibly through any changes we make to school start times,” said Mr. Rock.
The question is whether or not this major change in the district is worth all of the struggles and problems it will cause. Ms. McEvoy thinks that it’s a cause worth fighting for.
“I think anytime we can help our students be healthier, the better off we are,” said Ms. McEvoy. “So I’m all into good sleep, good nutrition, and healthy lifestyles.”