What time should the school day begin? With early school start times, most fore 7:30 a.m., many adolescents are not getting enough sleep. Recently West Hartford Public Schools and the Board of Education discussed the possibility of a change in school start times. This is to see how or if it will improve student learning (CT Post). According to the CT Post scientific evidence states that delaying the start times would improve the mental and physical health of students. Hall High administrators agree with the board of education when stating that students will be well-rested and ready to learn with new start times. The original idea was proposed at the start of 2019, but was dismissed due to the several challenges the town would face. the town might need to run eight or nine additional buses, at a cost ranging from $452,000-$510,000 for the year, according to the committee’s report.

As an ongoing topic in the Connecticut school district, the discussion on school start times changing has not been agreed on by the entire state. The West Hartford School district, in particular, is adamant about pushing later start times to the school day, not only for its own district but the entire state (Courant). West Hartford has provided different options for school start times the recent ing “High School: 8:10 a.m-2:55 p.m, middle schools: 7:40 a.m-2:30 p.m, elementary schools: 8:45 a.m-3:30 p.m” (WEHA Board of Ed).

When asked what concerns she had about delaying school start time, Dr. White claimed she had none. “Delaying the school start time should be beneficial to not only students but parents…the times should coincide with work hours”. This could potentially eliminate the issue of fore care and aftercare for parents. In terms of sports and/or after school programs numerous students worry about practices being scheduled prior to school, which would contradict the main reason behind changing the school start times.

Layla Aldana, an 8th grader soon to  Freshman, when asked if later start time would improve the school day stated, “It wouldn’t improve cause school would maintain regularly the same, the same classes, same curriculum, not much would change except for when we get in and out”. When asked if she feels students would be well-rested she said, “No, kids will still stay up late if not later cause they know they have more time to stay up”. She feels that school start times wouldn’t change the school experience, it would only start and end later than usual. 

Changing the school start time would be difficult in many aspects. Although it could help students sleep habits, changing to a later time would negatively affect other parts of a student’s day. If the time were changed different things would need to be reconfigured and also make sure it’s convenient for everyone, not just the students.