Barrington District 220 School Board To Consider New Start Times
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A northwest suburban school district could be getting new start times.
The Input 200 advisory committee at Barrington School District 220 has recommended a later start to the school day for Barrington High School and the district's middle schools, and an earlier start to the day for elementary schools.
The panel has offered three proposals to change start times for Barrington High School:
• starting at 9 a.m., and ending at 3:18 p.m.;
• starting at 9:30 a.m., and ending at 3:48 p.m.;
• or starting at 9 a.m., and ending at 3:52 p.m.
All three options would mean less class time for high school students. The high school currently starts classes at 7:20 a.m., and ends its day at 2:35 p.m.
The advisory panel also recommended elementary schools start their day at 8 a.m., an hour later than now; and middle schools start their day nearly at 8:50 a.m., nearly an hour later than now.
Experts have said adolescents should get about 9 hours of sleep each night, but as many as 70 percent of adolescents get 7 hours of sleep or less, resulting in higher stress and lower test scores.
Opponents of the plan to change start times have said the change would add more than $800,000 to the budget, and screw up a system that right now works quite well.
"The problem is is that nobody, until last week, was made aware that the Input times were 9 or 9:30 for the high school students, and that that would result in cutting curriculum time, and also a cutting class choices," parent Christine Bedard said.
Some students also have said they're not so sure change is a good thing in this case.
"I don't think they should change it, personally," junior Madison Masini said.
Fellow junior Joey Vitacco said later start times might help student performance, by allowing kids to get more sleep, but he'd still prefer to keep the current class times, to keep things consistent.
Jennifer Smith, who co-chairs the Input 220 committee, said the panel began studying the issue last April. She said the focus should be on the quality of instruction time, not the quantity.
"As committee we have felt the driving force for why we're doing what we're doing is ultimately for the physiological, psychological and overall health of our children," Smith said.
Input 220 announced its recommendations at the end of January, during a meeting at Station Middle School. It held its final meeting last week, and was set to make a formal presentation to the District 220 school board Tuesday night.
If the board goes along with the recommended changes, the new start times would not go into effect until next school year at the earliest.
