'It's a no-win situation.' Wake school board will weigh feedback on changing school start times

Wake County parents, students and staff see both pluses and minuses in later school start times for middle and high schools and earlier start times for elementary schools.

The later start times would be better for students' sleep, alertness and academic performance, according to a new survey conducted by the Wake County Public School System. At the same time, high school students fear their extracurricular activities would be negatively affected.

Drew Cook, assistant superintendent for academics, said making changes would require balancing tradeoffs and considering more than just research on academic outcomes.

“Some families rely on older children to take care of younger siblings after school,” Cook said. That couldn’t happen if high schools got out later than elementary schools.

“Parents may be uncomfortable with elementary age children traveling to school in the dark,” which could happen if school started much earlier, Cook said.

One of the main takeaways from the survey, according to the school system: Most people would prefer all schools start and end at about the same, running from 8:45 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. Such a change would require more buses and bus drivers.

The Wake County Board of Education discussed the idea of changing bell schedules Wednesday during a committee meeting, though it put off discussion of the survey results until a later meeting after an earlier agenda item ran long. The board isn’t preparing to take any action, and the school system has not proposed a plan to change start times, either.

“This is a no-win situation,” Board Member Wing Ng said. He said he’ll have to ponder how to weigh competing preferences as the board weighs whether to make any changes, in an attempt to minimize harm.

Board Member Sam Hershey asked what would happen if the board adopted bell schedules for every level of school that were closer together than they are currently.

“It certainly would require more resources or require more buses, more bus drivers,” Transportation Director Bob Snidemiller said. He said his department looked at what would happen if the board widened the gap between current start and end times by another 10 minutes. It would reduce the number of routes by 52, or nearly 10%. Condensing the schedule would do the opposite, requiring dozens more drivers amid a worsening bus driver shortage.

But other school systems in North Carolina and nationally — including Durham Public Schools — have made changes to start high school later, so Cook said he know it can be done.

The school system has talked for years about wanting to start high schools later — closer to 9 a.m. instead of closer to 7 a.m. — because of mounting research showing high school students would get more sleep and perform better academically if they could start school later. But officials haven't proposed actually making the change because of uncertainty over community feedback and because of the logistical challenges of pulling it off.

The changes don’t have to be dramatic to make an impact, Cook said. “Even a 30-minute shift later does have a positive impact.”

Based on the school board's upcoming discussion of the survey results, the school system will put together a few different options on how bell schedules could change. Nothing would change until the 2024-25 school year, at the earliest.

Based on the school board's discussion today, the school system will put together a few different options on how bell schedules could change. Nothing would change until the 2024-25 school year, at the earliest.

Survey takers were asked about their opinion on the benefits of their current school schedule in comparison to an alternative schedule. That would be:

• For high school, the current schedule of 7:25 a.m. to 2:20 p.m., compared to 9:15 a.m. to 4:10 p.m.
• For middle school, the current schedule of 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., compared to 8:15 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• For elementary school, the current schedule of 9:15 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., compared to 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Parents, students and staff, overwhelmingly believed the alternative schedule would benefit students academically and health-wise, particularly middle and high school students. There weren't many clear majorities in the survey on other matters, however.

The roughly 13,000 parents surveyed were split on whether changes in schedules would negatively affect childcare or their work schedules. But most middle and high school parents said the changes would either positively affect or not affect childcare or their work schedules. About 51% of elementary parents preferred the current setup for their work schedules and 45% preferred it for childcare.

Most of the about 7,000 elementary school parents who took the survey said preferred the elementary schedule that's already in place. Most the 1,700 elementary school staff who took the survey, however, said they preferred an earlier start for the sake of their work and family schedules and students' health, performance and attendance.

Of the 1,200 high school students surveyed, most said the later start time would benefit them more academically and health-wise and would improve their attendance and alertness. They said keeping the current schedule would benefit them more for their activities and work schedule. They were split on whether the change would benefit their ability to do homework or their family's schedule.

Elementary and middle school students weren't included in the survey.

About 3,400 staff members took the survey. They were split on which schedule would be better for their own childcare arrangement. Most of the about 1,400 high school teachers who took the survey said they preferred their current work schedule and said it was better for their family.

Superintendent Catty Moore also posed the changes to her teacher advisory council and her student leadership council and received negative feedback.

Teachers said the changes would cause too many disruptions and couldn't be pulled off with the school system's current transportation situation. Students were skeptical the changes would actually result in them getting more sleep.