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A teenager snoozing through school... March 6, 2003 - March 2003 - The Later School Team is disappointed in the decision of the WW-P School Board to return to earlier start times for the 2003-2004 school year. We hope there will be educational benefits from the new block scheduling, but we wish we were not returning to an earlier start to the school day. We are also concerned about the logistics of the single lunch period for 1400 students.November 5, 2002 - Today's New York Times features an article on teenage sleep deprivation and school start times called Sleep Is One Thing Missing in Busy Teenage Lives. It includes comments by Mary Carskadon, Ph.D., editor of the recently published Adolescent Sleep Patterns: Biological, Social, and Psychological Influences.
August 26, 2002 - This site and many other useful sites are listed as resources on "Block Scheduling, School Schedules and the Use of Time in Schools" by the Connecticut Department of Education. The entire bibliography is available in PDF format here.
April 4, 2002 - Article on the successful efforts of the Later School is Better committee in WW-P, from the website Connect for Kids.
February 27, 2002 - Transcript of Washington Post chat with Sarah Spinks, Director of PBS's Inside the Teenage Brain, including question from Deb on adult attitudes toward teen sleep needs.
February 1, 2002 - Last night as part of their Frontline series, PBS aired Inside the Teenage Brain. This fascinating show contained a segment on later school start times featuring interviews with lead sleep researchers Kyra Wahlstrom and Mary Carskadon.
May 7, 2001 - Article in New Jersey Star-Ledger on how difficult it is to push back school start featuring success in WW-P: "Schools won't stir for sleepy students"
September 29, 2000 - Article in Trenton Times: "Parents: Bus routes have ruined schedule"
September 22, 2000 - Article in Princeton Packet on later school being blamed for bus problems (not online).
September 20, 2000 - Later School comments on the WW-P busing crisis:
We at Later School are very sorry that many WW-P middle and high schoolers are no longer benefiting from our new later school times, because they are now being picked up by their buses at the same time as last year. Last spring, the Later School committee identified bus scheduling as a potential problem. We offered to work with the administration to tweak the bus schedules but they did not allow us to have any input into that process. They assured us they had it all under control. At the time we suspected that they did NOT have it under control and that if things went wrong, later school times would be blamed.
There are two separate issues here. We have a busing disaster which is NOT the fault of the schools' opening ten minutes later. It is the result of a severe shortage of bus drivers. You can do a search on the net for "school bus driver shortage" and read all about it. According to a recent article in the New York Times, there is a national school bus driver shortfall of 20%. Almost three-fourths of America's school districts say they're having trouble finding enough bus drivers. Officials in 44 states have cited the shortage as an issue, and the executive director of the National Association for Pupil Transportation says "it's a huge problem that no one seems to have an answer for right now...and it's a problem that's getting worse."
The trouble is caused by the current surge in school-age population, coupled with a booming economy that makes $13/hour part-time jobs involving great responsibility for children very unattractive. West Windsor-Plainsboro is certainly typical in that our economy is extremely strong, and our schools get bigger every year. The district is also bound by a rule or law (we're not sure which, and we'd like to find out) that requires it to accept the lowest bid for transportation services. If we were free to choose more costly suppliers, we might find that they have better drivers and lower turnover (because they pay more, or offer better working conditions, training, or benefits). Many parents who have contacted Later School on this issue say they are willing to pay if necessary to improve the quality of our bus service. The Board of Education seems to assume that cost-cutting is always the public's priority; on this issue they are incorrect.
We will continue to advocate for later school for teens because it is important. So is decent busing. They have little to do with each other, though the administration has unfortunately been quick to deflect criticism of its own lack of planning onto our cause. The most important things we can do about the busing situation are: (1) find out which law or rule is forcing us to hire the lowest bidder, and change it, and (2) make it very clear to the board that we insist on better transportation services for the money we are paying (some of us are even willing to pay more if necessary to get better bus service, but most think we are already paying enough, but it is not wisely allocated). Pushing school hours back to where they were won't get us even one more driver hired, and it won't raise the professionalism of the existing drivers.
August 22, 2000 - Later School is Better's successful campaign to push back WW-P's school start times for middle and high school students is featured in today's lead article on teen sleep deprivation on one of the Net's biggest health sites, WebMD -- click here or here to read it!
June 9, 2000 - Article in today's Princeton Packet on the "exploding popularity" of WWP Today mentions how Later School has successfully used the community site to coordinate and publicize its advocacy work.
Who visits the Later School is Better website?
Since May 2000, this site has been visited by people in at least thirty-five states and the District of Columbia. We've had hits from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin .
We've also had visitors from no less than 25 foreign countries, including Australia, Canada (Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec), Chile, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldava, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.
So we think it's fair to say there's a lot of interest in this issue!
May 23, 2000 - WW-P high schools, middle schools and UES will start later in September 2000!
Read the article about our success by David Campbell in the Princeton Packet.
The board of education has voted 9-0 in favor of starting the UES, the middle schools, and the high schools later next year! The change is 15 minutes later for the UES and the high schools, 10 minutes later for the middle schools (but considering they originally proposed starting middle school five minutes earlier next year, we consider this a 15-minute change as well).June 8, 2000 - Later school is the topic of busy two-hour call-in on Jim Gearhart's morning drive program on New Jersey 101.5 radio. Most callers favored later school start times for teens.The new school times will be as follows:
Elementary school times (K-3) are not changing. See a chart comparing the old and new start times here.High School 7:49 am 2:42 pm Middle School 7:50 am 2:42 pm UES 8:50 am 3:10 pm Obviously this is not a MAJOR improvement, but it is a step in the right direction. If all goes well and people are pleased with this plan and see that our extracurricular programs are not destroyed, we will be well positioned to seek another 15 minutes (or more) when the new elementary school comes online in 2002. Dr. Fitzsimons has told us schedules for the entire district will necessarily change at that time. Meanwhile, we will try to reach out to nearby school districts. If we can get some regional coordination happening on this issue, we stand a far better chance of making a more significant change.
Thanks to all of you who wrote, called, emailed, and came out to meetings in support of this change. This was definitely a grassroots effort and we can all be proud that we achieved at least some modicum of victory. As I told the reporters, perhaps even more important than the fifteen minutes we won is the symbolic value of the board's action. For the first time, they are acknowledging that teenagers' sleep needs should be taken into consideration when devising school schedules. This we believe is a major accomplishment!
June 7, 2000 - New articles and new professional research added.
May 26, 2000 - "Schools will open later in WW-P district," Princeton Packet. Read the excellent article on our success by David Campbell.
May 24, 2000 - "Sleepy students to get extra winks," by WW-P reporter Albert Raboteau in the Trenton Times.
May 23, 2000 - "WW-P may make minute changes to school day," Trenton Times article on upcoming board vote on later school start times.
April 11, 2000 - Read statements by Michele and Deb to WW-P School Board on the proposed middle school rescheduling, which would actually make middle school start five minutes EARLIER next year!
April 5, 2000 - Cablevision New Jersey supports the efforts of Later School is Better in this editorial.
March 27, 2000 - Did you snooze through National Sleep Awareness Week? (March 27-April 2). Read all about it:
March 27, 2000 - Article in Trenton Times cites scientific research, quotes WW-P administration and board members expressing support for later start times.The results of the National Sleep Foundation's annual Omnibus Sleep in America Poll Jump directly to the section on adolescents and sleep Minnesota town named 2000 Healthy Sleep Capital of the Nation: Honor Earned by Delaying High School Start Times in Favor of Adolescent Sleep Needs USA Today's front page story 3-28-00 -- A Teen Thing: Losing Sleep Pointers for Parents (#9 is "Actively seek positive changes in your community by increasing public awareness about sleep and the harmful effects of sleep deprivation, and
by supporting sleep-smart policies. Request sleep education in school curricula at all levels and encourage your school district to provide optimal environments for learning, including adopting healthy and appropriate school start times for all students."Seven Sleep-Smart Tips for Teens March 14, 2000 - Trenton Times article says WW-P administration has decided starting the school day later "would be impractical -- at least for next year." Our response to this article is posted here.
March 13, 2000 - Read this WWP high school student's perspective on too-early school, published in the News Eagle.
February 17, 2000 - Many new articles added.
February 7, 2000 - Please read our letter to the Princeton Packet in response to their article of last Friday, February 4th. It was published in the Tuesday, February 8th edition of the paper.
January 30, 2000 - We at Later School is Better are aware of the announcement made at the board meeting on January 27th. For those of you who may not have heard, Superintendent Fitzsimons said that a committee of administrators appointed to explore this issue has recommended that no action be taken for the 2000-2001 school year. Dr. Fitzsimons stated that his committee (which included no teachers, parents, students or board members) felt only 15-20 minutes could be gained without major disruptions in interscholastic sports scheduling, and that this small gain would not be worth the "logistical effort" required. The superintendent did not specify what the logistical effort would entail, but we feel 20 minutes every morning is well worth such effort.
Just this weekend we received a letter from Mary Carskadon, Ph.D., professor at Brown University, one of the country's top sleep researchers and a pioneer in studying adolescent sleep needs. Responding to our request for advice on how to implement later start times in our district, Professor Carskadon wrote:
...[S]tart perhaps by thinking small. Even a change of 15 minutes (in the right direction, of course) can have positive benefits, particularly if accompanied by curricular inroads and community education.We agree that this small change would be a step in the right direction, and might lead to even more significant changes in future, perhaps in coordination with nearby school districts.If you agree, please let the superintendent know by sending a postcard (click here for address) or email to him with the statement below, or a statement in your own words.
I am writing about the decision not to change middle and high school hours, as was announced at the board meeting on January 27, 2000. It is our understanding that school hours could be pushed back by 15-20 minutes without affecting schedules for interscholastic sports or busing.We have done what we can do at this point. We need to show the administration that the community wants to keep this issue alive and under consideration. Please write and have your friends and neighbors do the same!I support later school hours for our teenagers. I favor a later start time of even 15-20 minutes now and, after further consideration of all the issues, even later if feasible. I strongly urge you to reconsider the overwhelming evidence that later school start times benefit adolescents academically, physically and emotionally, or to make public your reasons for not doing so.
Thanks,
Deb Hornstra & Michele Brett
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