by P.D. Lesko

FOR TWO YEARS, Ann Arbor Public School officials and members of the Board of Trustees have been hemming and hawing, discussing and studying the pros and cons of later start times for the district’s sleep-deprived teens. In the latest on this no-brainer, Ann Arbor Board of Education Secretary Andy Thomas said the board’s performance committee will once again “examine the issue” in March. Not to rain on Thomas’s forward-thinking parade, but in 2007 NPR ran a segment on high schools which were pushing back times. In 2012, the AAPS BOE entertained the idea of later start times but couldn’t see the benefit to doing so. They’d all left their bifocals at home.

Kyla Wahlstrom is the director of the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement at the University of Minnesota. She published the study of the 9,000 students. Delaying the opening bell from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., for example, paid off more than delaying only until 8:00 a.m. Research indicates that students who get at least eight hours of sleep, and preferably nine, perform better than those who do not, Wahlstrom says, so a greater delay raises the chances of achieving those numbers. The later the start, the better the result.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a statement in August which counsels that teens who are sleep deprived have physical and mental health problems, an increased risk of car accidents and a decline in academic performance. The AAP now recommends middle and high schools not start before 8:30 a.m.

It could, then, be argued that every day middle and high schools in Ann Arbor expect students to be in class before 8:30 a.m. administrators and the members of the BOE are thumbing their noses at the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics and its 62,000 primary care pediatrician members. AAPS officials are contributing to the increased risk of car accidents, physical and mental health problems of sleep deprived AAPS middle and high school students. AAPS officials are undermining the academic performance of middle and high school students in their own district.

Keeping these serious consequences in mind, Trustee Thomas’s cavalier gaze toward March looks downright irresponsible. It’s as if a doctor were to inch slowly toward a committee put together to determine how to treat a massive heart attack victim brought into the ER.

Time is, literally, of the essence.

The biggest challenge for administrators? Transportation, school officials say. Many school districts use the same buses to transport elementary, middle and high school students. A change in start time at the high school level thus usually means a change in start time at elementary and middle schools, too.

Ann Arbor Superintendent Dr. Jeanice Swift came to us from Colorado Springs, Colo., where she was the Asst. Superintendent of District 11.

In 2012, Academy School District 20 in Colorado Springs, Colo., was able to push back high school start times by transporting middle and high school students together on the same buses, says Superintendent Mark Hatchell. They also eliminated bus routes with few students, which also saved the district money.

“We’ve seen less tardies and, this is anecdotal, but happier students,” he says.

Thus, Dr. Swift came from a district where administrators had worked out the logistical details, including the transportation piece. There’s no reason to think she’ll be unable to do so in Ann Arbor. She should encourage the BOE members to get crackin’ rather than wait until March. Otherwise, this issue will collide with the annual Budget-a-palooza wherein residents come face-to-face with the staggering annual structural deficit for the first time all over again.