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School bell may ring at new time
By ROBERT KING, Times Staff Writer Principals are putting the final touches on a proposal to change daily start times for schools -- allowing middle and high schoolers more time to sleep in while starting the day earlier at six of the 10 elementary schools. Driving the push for change is a consensus among principals that current start times -- middle and high schoolers start class before 8 a.m., while elementary children start closer to 9 a.m. -- doesn't make sense with the internal body clocks of children. The principals' "working draft" currently calls for: Middle school start times to be pushed an hour later than they are now; High school start times to be pushed back by approximately 20 minutes; and Six of the 10 elementary schools -- tentatively Brooksville, Chocachatti, Deltona, Floyd, Suncoast and Westside -- to start about an hour earlier than they do now. The proposal, which four "lead" principals are crafting with the help of the school transportation division, should be complete by April 16. From there, superintendent Wendy Tellone expects to discuss the proposal with the School Board at a workshop sometime in May. School Board chairman John Druzbick, who calls the idea "a major change," said he will insist on a hearing to get the public's perspective before a vote. Principals have been aiming to make the change effective this August. Druzbick, however, said he thinks the following year is more realistic. Changing start times has been mentioned before, and each time, strenuous objections were raised. Chief among them: concern from parents who depend on middle and high school children to babysit their younger children after school. The current schedule makes it possible for older students to arrive home ahead of, or at the same time as, elementary school children. Under the draft proposal, the six elementary schools starting sooner would send their kids home before middle schoolers arrive. Concerns also have been raised that later afternoon dismissals at high schools could conflict with extracurricular activities and student work schedules. Chocachatti principal Michael Tellone, who is helping develop the proposal as one of the lead principals, said there are after-school day care programs at every elementary school that can help with babysitting. And, because high school dismissal times would be no more than 30 minutes later than they are now, work schedules and extracurriculars for high school students shouldn't be drastically affected. Tellone sees the possibility that the new schedule could allow the district to get along with eight fewer school buses and save $160,000 a year because of it. Transportation director Mark Tallent said the savings would likely be less, if there are any at all, and no drivers would lose their jobs. All those things should be secondary to the educational benefits of a new schedule, said School Board member Sandra Nicholson, an outspoken advocate for the change. West Hernando Middle School health teacher David Harris has been scouring research on the sleep patterns of children. He says Hernando's current schedule is exactly backwards. He said elementary school kids would do better if they were on the current middle and high school timetable -- and vice versa. As it is, Harris said elementary school kids -- who are typically early risers -- often run out of gas before their school day ends. Meanwhile, middle and high school kids have one or two classes under their belts before they are truly conscious. Harris said research he has reviewed shows that schools with schedules more in tune with the sleep cycles have fewer absences, fewer late arrivals and fewer discipline problems. At the same time, they tend to have better test scores. While he acknowledges that a schedule change would have certain ramifications for families, Harris said there's little doubt in his mind about the education value of a new schedule. "Kind of in a sense it's a no-brainer," Harris said. -- Robert King covers education in Hernando County and can be reached at 754-6127. Send e-mail to rking@sptimes.com.
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From today's Hernando Times |
