Parents of students in Fairfax County Public schools have pushed for later high school start times for well over a decade. High schools in Fairfax begin very early, 7:30 am, which runs counter to adolescents’ biological clock. [read_more] From an email message sent yesterday to FCPS parents,
In August, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement that recommended later start times so that school schedules would be aligned with the biological sleep rhythms of adolescents. Other research indicates sleep-deprived students have shortened attention spans, slower reaction time, lower test scores, poorer grades, increased rates of depression, and higher risk of car crashes.
Unlike Loudoun County Public Schools which figured out how to schedule later start times for high schools decades ago, Fairfax County Public Schools has never been able to plan such a schedule. On Thursday the Fairfax School Board voted to change high school start times to 8:00 or 8:10 am, 30 minutes later than the current start time. Big deal. In Loudoun high schools begin at the much more reasonable time of 9:00 am.
Middle school students in Fairfax will still begin school at 7:30 am. Elementary school start times are unlikely to change by more than 10 or 15 minutes. More from the FCPS email,
The School Board’s approval of the new start times schedule for the 2015-16 school year will allow families and employees almost a full calendar year to adjust to the change.“We believe it is best to give our families and employees plenty of time to adjust to a change of this magnitude,” said Superintendent Karen Garza. “Between now and next September, we will work with intention to finalize bell schedules and to make needed adjustments to ensure that this is a smooth transition for our stakeholders and our community.”The change will require the addition of 27 buses at a cost of $4.9 million.
Seriously? A small 30 minute start time change requires “a full calendar year to adjust to the change”? It took them decades to make this minor change and another year to adjust to it. Imagine if they had done something as dramatic as starting high schools at the very reasonable time of 9:00 am, as does much of the nation. They would probably need five years to adjust!
7 comments
I’ve been reading the responses of some teachers to this change in Fairfax. It’s the end of the world! One teacher said her family will be ‘devastated’ by this 30 minute change. Another said it will cost her an extra $500 a month in child care. Teenagers will be killed in numerous traffic accidents if they don’t start school until 8:00! They’ll be out drinking until all hours and hungover at school! And now none of them will ever complete their homework because of this 30 minute change in their schedules! This change is DIRE! Graduation rates for FCPS will drop like a rock. (I am not exaggerating, teachers are losing it and saying absurd things.)
Teachers are furious that there will be a change in their schedules. They’re about ready to leap off bridges. Teachers REALLY do not cope well with change. One teacher said she is shocked that the school board would “do something this extreme”. Imagine if any of them had to work in the real world and their boss changed their schedule by, horrors, a whole hour?!! Or worse, changed their day off?! They would be forced to leave their jobs, and possibly their families as well! ‘Devastation’ would rain down on them!
“Work in the real world?” Are yup sure you don’t want to back off that comment? From a person who slammed the Foust comment about Constock not having a real job, you sure like to sling the same insults. Shame on you
Old biddies like Lovettsville Looney don’t recognize hypocrisy or irony.
Is there any chance you could write even one comment without an insult and name calling? What do you think that adds to the discussion?
How will you be inconvenienced by 30 minute later start times? Or do you come here simply to insult me? Do you call your mother names like this and your grandmother too? Strange for an adult man to behave this way. Or am I making too broad an assumption? Are you one of the teens effected by this change in FCPS?
Working for the government is ‘working in the real world’? Who knew?
Are you still saying that teachers don’t work in the real world or are you backing off that comment? I don’t understand what you are trying to say?
The FCPS should have just been brave and changed the start time a full hour later, or better yet a start time at 9:00 am. People will complain regardless, might as well have gotten it over with in one swoop – as this 30 minute change is puny and won’t matter much. People need to be able to adapt to change, it’s called life!
We don’t have increased alcohol problems here in Loudoun, and our HS kids get their homework done and they graduate. FCPS should look to other counties in NOVA as there are some things they could learn.