Starting next school year, Monroe County Community Schools Corporation students will start their day at least twenty minutes later than they do now.

School times were last changed in 2011 when the school day was made longer for students pushing start times earlier. Public Relations and Information Officer for MCCSC, Tim Pritchett, says the need to shift start times later became apparent during public meetings for the corporation’s academic calendar changes.

“When we were working on our new three-year calendar, we hosted two public forums on the calendar, and what really started to rear up in those was that the school day and the calendar were so tightly wound together,” he says.

After that, the corporation launched a transportation study to better understand how changes could be implemented. Administrators also took student safety into account. Jenny Olmes Steven, a parent at Jackson Creek Middle School, says even her daughter and her peers considered their options when it came to start times.

“The kids actually sat down and did math about whether going to 8 was a better deal for them because

they were giving up their late Wednesday start,” she says. “They convinced all their peers that, yes, this is definitely the best deal they could get.”

Reports by the American Academy of Pediatrics show that letting students sleep later helps with academic performance and mental health.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Education at the Indiana University School of Education and former superintendent of Franklin Township schools, Dr. Walter Bourke says regardless of studies and research, what really matters is what students are actually doing during the school day.

“You can have a reasonable length of day regardless of 15, 20, 30 minutes any direction as long as you improve that academic instruction time and focus on it,” he says.

Start time changes for all students will be implemented at the beginning of the 2016-2017 academic year.

Our guests:

Jenny Olmes Stevens, Parent, Jackson Creek Middle School

Tim Pritchett, Public Relations and Information Officer for MCCSC

Walter Bourke, visiting assistant professor of Education, IU School of Education

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