Bell Times Comparisons
Update: from the Start School Later Seattle group, they are urging a "yes" vote on the current bell times plan.
Good news! SPS has brought forth a very good proposal to change start times for 2016-17. These are the highlights:
•HIGH SCHOOLS
Now: 2 out of 14 high schools start at a healthy time for adolescents.
Proposed: All 14 high schools (100%) would start at a healthy bell time of 8:50 a.m. (Tier 2)
•MIDDLE SCHOOLS
Now: None of our 10 middle schools starts at a healthy time.
Proposed: 9 of 10 (90%) would begin the school day at 8:50 a.m. (Tier 2)
•ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Now: 28 elementary schools at Tier 3, which is hard on many families
Proposed: 49 elementary schools would start at 8:00 (Tier 1); 10 would remain in Tier 3 (a 64% reduction).
•K-8s
Now: 5 K8s in Tier 3, 5 K8s in Tier 2, and 1 K8 in Tier 1
Proposed: 3 in Tier 3 (a 40% reduction); 5 in Tier 2; 3 in Tier 1.
The cost of these changes is ZERO, and they will benefit many thousands of students.
The proposal is a major step forward, and we strongly support it. It is not perfect, but it is a HUGE improvement over our current system, which is without doubt detrimental to both adolescents who are sleep deprived, and to younger students who start too late.
Still, our goal is to have all SPS students scheduled at a biologically appropriate start time, and we will continue to advocate for that goal. After this vote, our efforts should be focused on Olympia to achieve full funding of public education so that two transportation tiers—the best schedule for all students—can be our next accomplishment.
In the meantime, the board will vote on 11/4. Please send an email urging a YES vote, as a no vote will maintain the status quo for the foreseeable future.
Two of the hard-working members of Soup for Teachers, Liza Rankin and Tama Weinberg created this info-graphic. There's also a link here to current bell times.
Good news! SPS has brought forth a very good proposal to change start times for 2016-17. These are the highlights:
•HIGH SCHOOLS
Now: 2 out of 14 high schools start at a healthy time for adolescents.
Proposed: All 14 high schools (100%) would start at a healthy bell time of 8:50 a.m. (Tier 2)
•MIDDLE SCHOOLS
Now: None of our 10 middle schools starts at a healthy time.
Proposed: 9 of 10 (90%) would begin the school day at 8:50 a.m. (Tier 2)
•ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Now: 28 elementary schools at Tier 3, which is hard on many families
Proposed: 49 elementary schools would start at 8:00 (Tier 1); 10 would remain in Tier 3 (a 64% reduction).
•K-8s
Now: 5 K8s in Tier 3, 5 K8s in Tier 2, and 1 K8 in Tier 1
Proposed: 3 in Tier 3 (a 40% reduction); 5 in Tier 2; 3 in Tier 1.
The cost of these changes is ZERO, and they will benefit many thousands of students.
The proposal is a major step forward, and we strongly support it. It is not perfect, but it is a HUGE improvement over our current system, which is without doubt detrimental to both adolescents who are sleep deprived, and to younger students who start too late.
Still, our goal is to have all SPS students scheduled at a biologically appropriate start time, and we will continue to advocate for that goal. After this vote, our efforts should be focused on Olympia to achieve full funding of public education so that two transportation tiers—the best schedule for all students—can be our next accomplishment.
In the meantime, the board will vote on 11/4. Please send an email urging a YES vote, as a no vote will maintain the status quo for the foreseeable future.
Two of the hard-working members of Soup for Teachers, Liza Rankin and Tama Weinberg created this info-graphic. There's also a link here to current bell times.
Comments
-Liza from SfT
BT
-Liza
The only remaining concern is that neighborhood elementary schools that share after school resources should be grouped together if at all possible, since there is such a huge gap between getting out at 2:10 pm vs. 3:50 pm, so the after school programs will have trouble serving everyone equally.
BT
-Liza
Here's the math: roughly 20,000 middle/high school students. 180 school days. If the figure to have all on one tier is $8m, that's just $2.00 per student per day. That money buys you students who are awake enough to benefit from all of the other money SPS spends on curriculum and support.
I don't know if you could find many other uses of $2.00 per student per day that would return this level of benefit.
Christopher