For the past year and a half, school board member TJ Mertz has been urging the Madison school board to delay middle school start times beyond the current 7:35 a.m. After months of prodding, the issue finally made its way onto the board’s Dec. 5 agenda.
Mertz and others argue that research shows children of middle school age need more sleep. In August 2014, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a policy statement recognizing lack of sleep as a public health issue that significantly affects the safety and academic success of students in both middle and high school. The group urged that school start times be no earlier than 8:30 a.m., allowing for 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep. Complicating matters is that biological sleep patterns naturally begin shifting at that age, making it difficult for young teens to fall asleep before 11 p.m.
Karen Kepler, chief of school operations, updated the board on the progress of a small team formed in September to explore the possibility, and plausibility, of changing middle school start times.
The team surveyed nearly 10,000 parents, students and staff, asking a range of questions to understand the impact the change would have. “We wanted to lead the charge on whether or not our community was ready for later start times,” Kepler told the board. “Our community is pretty ready for it.”
Of the 10,000 people who responded to the survey, 78 percent of parents, 71 percent of staff and 75 percent of students believe later start times would have a positive or neutral impact on their morning routines. But the change would be costly.
“Without changing elementary or high school start times, changing all middle schools to a later start time would require approximately 50 to 55 additional bus routes, which would be an increase of $2 million per year,” Kepler told the board.
Madison schools reduce the cost of transportation by staggering early and late bus routes across middle and high schools. A later middle school start time would eliminate that ability.
Kepler recommended the district do a pilot year with one middle school moving to a later start time to fully understand the logistics needed to go district-wide. But the board did not take any action after the informal discussion. It is scheduled to consider the matter again in March.
The $2 million price tag surprised some of the board members. Mary Burke, board vice president, was unconvinced of the need.
“I have to be honest, I am just incredibly skeptical that this is worth our time,” Burke said. “If we are anywhere close to a price tag of $2 million a year, it would be one of the lowest priorities I would have.”
Burke urged the group to delay the pilot until it is able to indicate that later start times really do improve student health, and until it finds a way to make the program cost-neutral. “Unless we’re serious about this, I wouldn’t do it, because there’s no going back,” said Burke.
Superintendent Jennifer Cheatham confirmed that research shows that early start times do affect student health, but noted the district has other initiatives and expenses to meet.
“If it’s going to cost $2 million or whatever it ends up being, when you think of all of the things that we want to do, we have to think about what is the most important or what is at the top of the list,” Cheatham said. “But, I have a feeling that parents are going to say that if we can pull it off, we should do it.”