To: MCPS School Board and Alex Apostle, MCPS Superintendent
Later MCPS High School start time
MCPS High Schools should start 1 hour later than the current schedule (i.e. 8:55 am instead of 7:55 am).
Why is this important?
Research shows that teenagers have difficulty sleeping before 10:30 pm, and that they need 8.5 - 9.5 hours of sleep per night. Moving school start times to later than 8:30 am improves student performance and graduation rate and lowers depression rates in teens. Yet high schools in Missoula start at 7:55 am. Additionally, high schools finish at 3:00 pm, which means that many teens are home alone for several hours before their parents. If MCPS high schools started at 8:55 am and finished at 4:00 pm, teens would be more likely to get needed sleep and less likely to get into trouble during the afternoons.
See: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/08/25/343125751/pediatricians-say-school-should-start-later-for-teens-health
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6896471
See: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/08/25/343125751/pediatricians-say-school-should-start-later-for-teens-health
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6896471