Two of Colorado’s largest districts explore later high school start times

Two large Colorado districts are considering pushing back high school start times for 2017-18 in a nod to research that shows starting later helps teens get more sleep and do better inside and outside the classroom.

Officials in the Cherry Creek and Boulder Valley districts —the state’s fourth- and eighth-largest —say they’ll hold community meetings this school year to gather feedback from parents, staff and students about the potential changes.

“It would be our hope to go forward next year,” said Sandy Ripplinger, Boulder Valley’s assistant superintendent for elementary education and co-chair last year of a task force that researched later high school starts.

The proposed start time range would be 8:30-8:45 a.m. compared to the current 7:30-8 a.m. range, she said.

Tustin Amole, spokeswoman for Cherry Creek, said the district hasn’t settled on a time range for its late start proposal. High schools there now start between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m.

Meanwhile, in Denver Public Schools, the state’s largest district, two years of discussion and one short-lived attempt to push start times later at 10 secondary schools haven’t yielded any changes so far.

In fact, start times have gotten earlier at one DPS high school. Northfield High, the district’s newest comprehensive high school, opened last year with an 8:45 a.m. start time and this year has a 7:45 a.m. start time.

Principal Amy Bringedahl, who was named to the job last spring, said last year’s later start time came with a 4:45 p.m dismissal time that created problems for students in after-school sports or with after-school jobs, and pushed homework and family time too late in the day.

A school committee of parents, teachers and administrators recommended an 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. schedule this year, said Bringedahl. But transportation department officials couldn’t accommodate the request, settling on a 7:45 a.m.-2:50 p.m. day instead. (While district-run yellow buses aren’t provided for most Denver high-schoolers, Northfield is an exception because city bus routes haven’t been established in that area yet.)

DPS officials said Monday they’re considering the possibility of adjusting high school start times, but provided few details on their plans.

“We know that this conversation needs to include school leaders and their communities as we move forward, so that any decisions are rooted in the needs of each school,” Deputy Superintendent Susana Cordova said in an emailed statement.

The push for later high school start times has gained steam nationally with increasing evidence that when school schedules jibe with teen sleep rhythms, students are healthier, more focused, attend school more regularly and do better academically. In the last two years, both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have come out in favor of start times of 8:30 a.m. or after.

A number of school districts across the country have opted for later start times in recent years, but the 52,000-student Seattle Public Schools is probably the biggest and most high-profile example. Starting this fall, high schools and most middle schools there will start at 8:45 a.m.

In Colorado, some smaller districts, including Montezuma-Cortez and Harrison, have pushed start times to 8:30 or after for some or all secondary schools, but large districts have been slower to join the club.

A big part of it is logistics. District officials everywhere say later start times for middle and high schools can impact elementary school bell times, transportation costs, sports schedules and students’ after-school obligations, including caring for younger siblings.

“It’s not as simple as saying kids do better when they don’t have to get up as early,” Amole said. “There’s so many things that go into that.”

She said Cherry Creek officials discovered how controversial schedule changes can be when they shifted middle school start times from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. several years ago. School board meetings were packed with protesters and eventually a compromise 8:30 a.m. start time was adopted.

“There’s a lot of things we learned from that experience that we have to consider this time,” Amole said.

Boulder Valley administrators said last year’s task force, which studied scheduling issues at various grade levels, focused on examining research on late high school starts. This fall’s process, after clarifying whether late starts are feasible for the district’s transportation department, will seek public opinion on the issue.

One open question on late high school starts—particularly around their effect on interscholastic sports— is whether districts that make the change will influence others to do the same.

“If one district has a later start which then pushes athletics later, would other districts be thrown off, or would they come together?” Ripplinger asked.

Bringedahl, of Northfield High School, said there are two strands of research to consider. Besides evidence in favor of late starts and well-rested students, “There’s also the research to show the more kids are involved after school the more successful they are in life.”

“It’s the push and pull,” she said. “I certainly don’t have any perfect bell time.”