Starting 10 Minutes Later
Sag Harbor students will get an extra 10 minutes of sleep this school year. The school board approved new start times for the district at its meeting on Monday, amid research that shows it is unhealthy to start school before 8 a.m.
“This is a small step in what is going to be a journey,” Chris Tice, a board member, said.
Before the vote, however, the board received an overwhelming response that 10 minutes didn’t seem significant enough to warrant a change and therefore shouldn’t be implemented.
The members spent 150 hours last year trying to determine new start times, a board member said, and didn’t seem deterred. “This is at least an improvement,” Ms. Tice said.
For months, the board compiled transportation statistics, several options for later start times, potential costs, and comments about how to work the timing in conjunction with athletics practices and competitions.
In a presentation in December following several meetings about the later times, board members quoted an August 2014 report by the American Academy of Pediatrics that said that the sleep cycle begins to shift two hours later when puberty starts.
“The research is clear that adolescents who get enough sleep have a reduced risk of being overweight or suffering depression, are less likely to be involved in automobile accidents, and have better grades, higher standardized test scores, and an overall better quality of life,” the report said.
According to a National Sleep Foundation survey conducted in 2014, 60 percent of children under the age of 18 complained of tiredness throughout the day and 15 percent fell asleep at school.
Effective in September, the Pierson Middle and High School will begin at 7:35 a.m. and end at 2:36 p.m.; the elementary school will start at 8:45 a.m. with dismissal at 3:20 p.m.; the prekindergarten morning session will run from 8:50 to 11:30 a.m., and the afternoon pre-K session will be from 12:30 to 3:10 p.m.
The start and end times have shifted only 10 minutes for now, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t change more in the future. Diana Kolhoff, a board member, suggested asking residents what they would be willing to pay for and support. The board had projected an increase of either $35 or $70 in a taxpayer’s bill, depending on which of two options for even later start times might be adopted, for extra buses and bus drivers’ salaries.
The board wants to continue to modify the schedule as needed and sees it as an ongoing project. “I think we shouldn’t stop looking at this,” Ms. Kolhoff said.