Should Stillwater Area High School students start their day an hour later?
The Stillwater school board is exploring a possible change based on research that shows that later start times help teens get more sleep, which can result in better physical and mental health.
On Thursday evening, board members will be learning more about how a potential change in school start times for the 2019-2020 school year might impact students at all levels — from elementary to high school. The discussions are open to the public and will take place at Stillwater City Hall; video of the meetings will be available online.
From 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., a University of Minnesota researcher and a representative from the Minnesota Sleep Society will present research about high-school start times.
At 6 p.m., school board members will hear more about the impact of a start-time change, then will discuss the issue and vote on whether they want a formal proposal to change start times for 2019-2020, said Carissa Keister, spokeswoman for the district.
“It’s not a formal recommendation at this time,” Keister said Tuesday. “The school board is interested in learning more and is really just exploring it. They want to see if this is something we want to continue to have conversations about.”
Under one of the scenarios that will be presented, Stillwater Middle School, Oak-Land Middle School and four of seven elementary schools — Andersen, Lake Elmo, Lily Lake and Brookview — would start at 7:30 a.m. The elementary schools currently start at 8:40 a.m. and the middle schools at 7:50 a.m.
Stillwater Area High School would begin at 8:35 a.m., as would Afton-Lakeland, Rutherford and Stonebridge elementary schools. The high school currently starts at 7:40 a.m.
The elementary schools that would start earlier under the proposed scenario were chosen because they have shorter bus routes, Keister said. “We’re trying to minimize the amount of time that elementary students have to be standing out in the dark waiting for the bus,” she said.
Charter/non-public schools, like St. Croix Catholic, River Grove: A Marine Area Community School and St. Croix Preparatory Academy, would start at 9:40 a.m. or 9:50 a.m. St. Croix Catholic currently starts at 9:10 a.m.; St. Croix Prep starts at 9:30 a.m.
For more information, go to bit.ly/2tlutAv.
The St. Paul school board voted in October to have high schools and middle schools start an hour later beginning in fall 2019.
The Mounds View district will change start times this fall.