A public meeting discussing school start times will be held Thursday night at Barrington High School.
BARRINGTON — Barrington High School student Heidi Herchen has no problem with the current start time at the school. She actually prefers starting off the school day bright and early at 7:45 a.m.
A junior, Heidi plays three sports at the high school and fears that a later start time — an idea school officials will discuss at a public meeting on Thursday, Jan. 26 — will negatively impact her sports teams’ practice and games schedules.
“I hope the school disregards the issue,” Heidi said during a recent interview. “School starting at 7:45 is fine the way it is, they should not fix something that’s not broken.”
Some school officials, and students, feel differently.
They point to the high school’s common planning time program, which already allows for a later start time every other Thursday morning — 8:45 a.m. instead of 7:35. On those days, said sophomore Haley Ryan, school just seems to go better.
“I love CPT days. It just let’s kids be more awake during their earlier classes,” said Haley, adding that the extra hour before the start of classes has positively impacted her focus level.
Barrington High School junior Karl Aspelund echoed those comments.
“I would love for school to start later,” he said. “The human body is not meant to wake up in darkness and functions better when waking up in daylight. Nearly everyone agrees it is in the students’ best interests and therefore the school’s too.”
Karl said he hopes his message of the later start time being healthier for students — the more important message, in his opinion — is emphasized at the Jan. 26 public meeting.
But not all students agree that a later start time at the high school is better. Freshman Alex Hummel said a later start time would encourage students to stay up later. Instead, she’s actually pushing for an earlier start time for high school classes; Alex said the earlier start time would open up more time for activities outside of school in the afternoon.
“After-school activities will either be shortened or cut drastically into our time to do homework and other things, so we’d probably go to bed an hour or two later and therefore the new start time would do nothing,” said Alex.
Heidi Herchen was also concerned about after-school activities being negatively impacted by the later start times.
“Student athletes would be put at a huge disadvantage because they would have even less time for practice and homework,” she said.
Junior Ben Modica added to Heidi’s point, “For after-school activities obviously they would have to be pushed back which could in some cases be bad.”
Other extracurricular activities would be affected as well.
“It would bother me because I do many activities after school and they would all have to be pushed back due to a new time,” said sophomore Noah Shea.
Karl Aspelund offered a rebuttal to the concerns about the impact to after-school activities.
“I think that though sports might be affected slightly, I think it is more than made up for by the better concentration and overall larger sense of happiness from the students,” he said.
Megan Duffy is a student at Barrington High School and a contributor to the Barrington Times.
Comments
BarringtonMom 3 months, 3 weeks ago
It's becoming apparent that the town of Barrington is just looking for any way to increase their standardized testing scores. Sad.
BarringtonMom 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Just adding to the above...It's the only reason that makes true sense. I know...I know...the teenagers need more sleep and are more productive later in the morning. Yet, to make such a change that could negatively impact the other Barrington school's students and families with the changes that will be necessary to bus schedules, field times, extracurricular activities, after school work and programs, daycare, etc, without any guarantee that it will increase the productivity or sleep for the teens....I don't get it. The day will always be 24 hours long. It matters what you do with those hours. We're supposed to be preparing these students to become successful, self-sufficient, responsible adults. Giving an extra hour in the morning is not sending the right message. Of course, I would have loved to have an extra hour of sleep in the morning when I was in high school and even now, yet that is not reality. These young adults need help, yet not with an extra hour in the morning, but with the guidance to make better decisions with managing time.
AMK2012 3 months, 3 weeks ago
BarringtonMom, it is important to understand the nature of a school. It is true that, as you said, schools are supposed to teach students to be responsible and self-sufficient adults. Yet a teenager is not an adult and among other things has a natural tendency to stay up later and wake up later. That's just the way teens' biological clocks work. Later on, in college and beyond, the clocks change to conform to waking up earlier. Starting school later would not stop kids from learning to wake up earlier when they are older either. It will only help them become less discouraged with and readier to take on their huge workload. That can only help them for the future. Yet you also say that you fail to see how later start times guarantee more productivity or sleep. Many respectable studies have shown that in schools that move start times later in the day, students complete more work in school, behave better, are less depressed, report fewer problems between peers and with parents, and even land in fewer car accidents. It is a fact, then, that students are more productive with later start times. In addition, if they finish more work in school, then they will not stay up later. I completely agree with you that students should be taught to manage their time better. But why can't they be taught to manage their time and be better behaved, happier, and more productive as well? That happens with later start times and has, in fact, been guaranteed through scientific research. Lastly, you speak of the negative impacts to schedules. Yet what matters more: the health and overall welfare of the students or a single hour lost during the day? That hour means barely anything in the long run. Many schools in Rhode Island end later than Barrington High School, yet their sports teams have no problem competing with BHS; it is clear that BHS sports and other extracurricular activities related to the school will be fine with a later start time. As for the rescheduling of other programs, I think that priorities are misplaced here. To end school at 3:15 will not create logistical chaos in the slightest; the programs are flexible and can easily accompany a later start time. Overall, you must understand that there are few negatives, and the few ones that exist are easily surpassed by the greater welfare of the students. And when students live better, the school and the community live better. I encourage you to read the editorials under the "More like this story" heading above. They offer even more benefits that I neglected to mention here.
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