Students leave their school buses Aug. 3 and head to Center Grove Elementary School on the first day of classes. A proposal from Center Grove Community School Corporation officials would’ve started the elementary school day earlier, pushing middle and high school classes later.
DAILY JOURNAL FILE PHOTO
Center Grove Community School Corporation officials are pausing plans to delay the start of the school day for middle and high school students.
The plan would’ve also pushed elementary start times earlier in order to satisfy transportation logistics. Elementary school students currently start school at 9 a.m. and end at 3:45 p.m. The middle school day runs from 7:30 a.m. to 2:40 p.m. and high schoolers start classes at 7:35 a.m. and end the day at 2:50 p.m.
School officials released a community survey last month on early dismissal, but the survey didn’t ask parents whether they agreed with the proposal to change school start times. Under the proposal, the elementary school day would’ve started at 7:35 a.m. and ended at 2:20 p.m.; the middle school day would have started at 8:40 a.m. and ended at 3:50 p.m.; the high school day would have started at 8:45 a.m. and ended at 4 p.m.
While there was no set date the changes would’ve taken effect, school officials opted to abandon the plans late last week. School officials had run into complications regarding the alignment of the high school schedule with Central Nine Career Center and staffing uncertainties at Honey Grove Education Center, which hosts before and after school care, Superintendent Rich Arkanoff said.
“It will require adjustments on our end, and we’ll have to determine whether it’s worth the effort to do,” he said. “For us to make changes right now, it would take more coordination than we have time for right now.”
Arkanoff said he is unsure when, if at all, the discussion about changing start times will resume.
Parents were split over whether or not the change would be beneficial. Angie Langman, a Center Grove parent, spoke at a school board meeting Feb. 23 in favor of the change. With students’ sleep cycles shifting later as they reach adolescence, a later start to the school day would help improve their mental health, Langman said.
“Sleep affects everyone’s mental health and obviously, it would be daylight when the new drivers are driving (to high school),” she said. “My girls are in sixth and seventh grade and it’s already a struggle for them to be in bed by 9 or 9:30 (p.m.), and waking up at 6 a.m., it’s a struggle to get up.”
Langman referred to a TED Talk from clinician and sleep researcher Wendy Troxel, during which she talks about how early start times deprive students of sleep during a time of their development when they need to sleep later.
A pair of Center Grove High School students, juniors Allie McCauslin and Keygan Montgomery, said they were opposed to starting later. Getting off school at 4 p.m. minimizes the chances of holding a job during the school year, as minors are required to clock out by 9:30 p.m., McCauslin said.
“It would force high schoolers to only work on weekends because weekdays wouldn’t be possible,” she said.
Students taking part in extracurricular activities would get home later, start schoolwork later and go to sleep later, not getting any additional sleep, Montgomery said.
“It would be pretty difficult for students to be in athletic programs and pass classes,” he said. “A lot of my friends are having difficulty keeping up with classwork and being in sports. It also goes for theatre kids, having fall and spring plays. It’s a domino effect. All the programs are pushed into (later) times.”
But Center Grove school leaders saw the change as an advantage when originally proposing it. The change had been proposed multiple times during the last 20 years, but had never materialized into an actual change, Arkanoff said.
“The research is overwhelmingly positive that this is what’s best for our students,” he said. “Lots of schools we compete against right now have already made the change, so if we’re waiting around to play a particular school, it’s because their high school doesn’t have dismissal until 3:50 or 4 p.m.”
Although Johnson County high schools tend to start the day earlier, Carmel, Lawrence Central, Lawrence North, Noblesville, Westfield, Ben Davis, Fishers, Zionsville, Avon and Plainfield high schools all have later start times, Arkanoff said.
The school district also put together a webpage, that includes more than 20 articles and studies from sources such as the Associated Press, CBS News, The New York Times, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics describing the need for teenagers to sleep later. Resources also discuss the ability for elementary-age students to start school earlier without negative effects.
Some parents disagreed with the proposal not because of the concept of starting school at a different time, but the way school officials approached the potential change. Lynn Ripberger, who has children who attend Middle School North and Center Grove High School, said the community should’ve been more involved with the process.
“I think they should’ve had open community forums to seek input. There were concerns from families and community members. They should’ve presented viable options, not just have early release or no early release,” Ripberger said.
District administrators could’ve considered shortening the school day to prevent students from getting home late or piloted time changes at one or two schools before deciding if it’s a good idea to pursue districtwide, she said.
Marlene Julye, the parent of a kindergartner at Pleasant Grove Elementary School, also wasn’t opposed to a change in school times, but was concerned because of the uncertainty of staffing at Honey Grove, Julye said.
“The conversation should’ve been brought up last summer about what they wanted to do,” she said. “The survey asked ‘do you like early release, yes or no.’ I feel like the administration put it out there and they didn’t care about the feedback and didn’t want suggestions. They’d already made their decision about start times.”
Going forward, one thing is certain; if the district revisits changing start times again, the process will look different, Arkanoff said.
“We’re going to look at the information of logistical issues,” he said. “We’re doing that internally, and if we decide to do anything further, we will have to pull a larger committee together. It’ll be a complete restart if we do it.”
