Mixed Reviews for Newton High Schools’ Later Start Times (Published in The Boston Globe)
In an ongoing effort to improve health, Newton high school students have had an extra hour every morning before school starts this year. The once 7:40 and 7:50 a.m. start times at Newton South and Newton North have been pushed to 9 a.m.
Changing the high school schedule has been a longtime discussion among officials in Newton Public Schools. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an adolescent should be getting eight to ten hours of sleep on average per night in order to support their wellbeing. In the 2013-2014 school year there was a mental health crisis involving three Newton high school students.
“Since Fall 2015, the district has been engaged in a thorough exploration of later start times for Newton high schools,” according to Newton’s High School Start Time Working Group. “This work was predicated on the significant research demonstrating the importance of adequate sleep for adolescents at appropriate times.”
ZZ Sayeed, a sophomore student and athlete at Newton North, said she was running on much less than the recommended amount of sleep before the schedule change.
“I find it comforting at night that if I have to stay up late to do homework that I don’t have to get up at 7 a.m. and run on less than six hours of sleep,” Sayeed said. “The new schedule has been better for my mental and physical health.”
Newton Public Schools conducted research with the American Academy of Pediatrics, the University of Minnesota, and others showing grades, health, and extracurricular performances increase in teenagers with later start times and more sleep.
A Newton South High School parent, Shara Ertel, said her daughter is enjoying the later start time and she thinks students are performing better emotionally, socially, academically and in athletics.
“I am 100 percent in support of later start times,” she said.
Still, some parents and coaches including Ertel said they have concerns about how the later start times impact after-school sports.
ZZ Sayeed said that one of the biggest downfalls to the new schedule is the later end of practices, as there is not as much time to do homework or other extracurricular activities after practice is over.
“It is pitch black outside by the time we finish sports,” Sayeed said. “However, I think North has done a good job of giving time in school for clubs and homework so the homework load isn’t as bad.”
Ertel mentions the effect of the change on students’ time in school as well.
“For athletes, that 30 minutes translates into lost class time due to very early dismissals, decreased warm-up time, very late practices, or very early practices,” she said.
Newton North does not have permanent lights on their field unlike Newton South, and Joe Tranchita, Newton North girl’s track and field coach, said it is difficult to hold practices in the afternoons before it gets dark. In addition, athletes are missing more classes and mandatory learning time than they have in previous years due to early afternoon games against districts with different schedules.
In Massachusetts, Ertel said, over 30 school districts have adopted later start times, along with hundreds of districts around the country.
Superintendent of Newton Schools David Fleishman said in an e-mailed statement that the school committee will survey in early December to gain a better understanding of impacts of the start time shift.