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To the Editor of the Trenton Times:
The article "WW-P won't shift start of class day" (3-14-00) contained some serious misrepresentations which we would like to correct. The article states that on our website, we say that if the school district can create a new academy for emotionally disturbed students, it can work out new bus schedules. At no time have we ever written, said or implied any such thing, or taken any official position whatsoever with respect to the academy. The issue of the academy is entirely separate from the issue of our too-early school starting times. In fact the academy is not mentioned at all on our website.
In addition, the reporter states that we "could not be reached for comment." In fact, we could not be reached because the reporter did not try. We would have been very pleased to offer our comments on this issue, which we have been working on since November. Unfortunately, the reporter made no discernible attempt to contact us. We received no phone calls, voice messages or e-mails.
We met with WW-P Schools Superintendent John Fitzsimons and district spokeswoman Gerri Hutner earlier this month, when they shared with us the recommendations of a committee of administrators who had exploring this issue since last fall. According to Fitzsimons and Hutner, the administrators were in general agreement that our middle and high schools start too early (7:34 and 7:40 a.m., respectively). They were familiar with the many recent studies showing widespread sleep deprivation among adolescents.
These studies, available on our website at http://homepages.wwptoday.com/advocates/laterschool, show that sleep deprivation negatively affects our teenagers physically, emotionally and academically. It leads to information processing and memory deficits; increased irritability, anxiety, and depression; and decreased creativity and ability to handle complex tasks. Additional sleep on weekends (when almost ALL teenagers sleep more hours than they do during the week, attesting to their deficit) does NOT offset these effects. In addition, our too-early start times mean too-early end times (as early as 1 p.m. for high school seniors, who have the privilege of scheduling lunch and a study hall as the last two periods of the day). We know that teenage crime and drug and alcohol use peaks during these largely unsupervised afternoon hours.
The administrators were also familiar, from their own experience of course, with the phenomenon of sleepy students, especially in the early periods. The high schools have a tremendous problem with students' being tardy, and many teachers have confirmed to us the inability of their first-period classes to attend.
Speaking of teachers, our group has argued all along that teachers must be brought into the discussion. We believe they should have been included, along with parents, students, board members, community members, and outside experts, on the administration's original committee. We do not believe, however, that the needs of teachers should necessarily trump the needs of students.
We are also unconvinced that teachers will not welcome the move to later school hours. Studies have shown only 25% of teachers nationwide favor starting school earlier than 8 a.m., as we do. Why not ask our teachers? For that matter, why not ask the students what they think? We have been denied the opportunity to survey the high school students (under the auspices of the Student Council) as to their opinions on school start times. Is the administration afraid of what such a survey might reveal?
We are well aware that various logistical considerations, some of them quite problematic, make starting school later difficult. However, we were told that with the imminent build-out of the West Windsor Plainsboro system, all school hours will soon have to be reconfigured. We were assured that the administration will attempt to push back the high school and middle school starting times when all the school hours have to be reconfigured anyway, for the 2002-2003 school year. At that time, we were told, it may be possible to gain 30-40 minutes in the morning for our adolescent students without greatly increasing our transportation costs, running into problems with the teachers' contract, or jeopardizing our extracurricular activities.
The West Windsor-Plainsboro school district should seize this opportunity to show leadership in an area that is not exploratory, but based on scientific research. There are obviously many factors to be considered in constructing school schedules; our teenagers' sleep requirements are one of those factors. Later school IS better for adolescents. Someone has to take the initiative and begin the move in the right direction. Why not us?
Sincerely,
Michele Brett
Deborah Hornstra
Later
School is Better
laterschoolisbetter@hotmail.com
Princeton Junction, NJ
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