High school students may get to sleep in a little later next year after the Bellevue School Board voted Oct. 6 to approve a conditional 8:30 a.m. start time for district high schools. The new start time tentatively will begin in fall 2016.
The start time is subject to board approval of an implementation plan that includes a feasibility study at each school, a solution brought up after lively discussion by the board over the role that the homework load might play in teenagers sleep schedules, scheduling and the conflict with extra-curricular activities.
“This is the third iteration of this I’ve seen in my 12 years on the board, and it has never gotten to this point, so something is different this time,” said board member Chris Marks, adding “We’re getting lost in three of the 12 million details we can’t decide right now.”
Given that Bellevue high schoolers utilize public buses, the district will need to work with King County Metro to add additional routes — at $50,000 each. How a later school release would affect student athletes also has yet to be decided.
Also unknown is what kind of impact the decision will have on the many Bellevue students who participate in regional sports as the district’s sports teams regularly compete against neighboring districts and in KingCo. tournaments.
“I think we need to recognize the impact on the first two or so years of students. There are a ton of organizations that don’t just draw from Bellevue, but all over the Eastside, and the trend in the area is to start at 7:30 a.m. and let out at 2 p.m. Whether we admit it or not, those kids will pay,” said board member Christine Chew.
Multiple times during the discussion, Chew stated that she didn’t feel the board had researched the implementation of a later start time, causing board member Steve McConnell to propose the alternative memorandum, giving schools the ability to weigh in on the feasibility.While implementation and the logistics remain up in the air, many board members said they believe that Bellevue’s move could be an impetus for change across the region.
Having spoken to officials at Mercer Island and Issaquah school districts, McConnell said that they would likely follow Bellevue’s lead. “It’s the belief that Bellevue is in enough of a leadership role that if Bellevue changes, other districts will change,” he said.
In the end, the health benefits won over the board members. Research into sleep schedules and school start times and a district survey pointed in favor of a later start time.
“We really do need to make the health of the students a very high priority,” said board member Carolyn Watson. “For my family, I’m voting against what will be best for us, but I feel I have to vote for what will be good for the majority.”
The decision came after a year of consideration and debate.
A steering committee formed last year to advise the Bellevue and Mercer Island school districts recommended in June that the school start time be pushed back between 30 minutes and an hour after finding that shifting the current bell schedules, start and end times are feasible and that the community supported it.
Around 11,500 people responded to and approximately 3,000 people commented on the online survey. Around 60 percent of those surveyed opposed the existing 7:30 start time, while 71.3 percent and 74.3 percent supported a 8:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. start, respectively.
“Ultimately, we could see that there was significant support for a later start time,” Deputy Superintendent of Instructional Leadership Eva Collins said in June.
