Carson City educators respond to NDE start time workshop

Teachers and parents Thursday agreed changing high school start times would benefit students to keep them from falling behind academically, but implementing adjustments for each district would be a challenge.

The Nevada Department of Education’s first of two workshops gave the public an opportunity to discuss changing start times to help improve students’ academics, school districts’ transportation needs, athletic and extracurricular schedules and family considerations.

Thursday’s meeting was facilitated by State Board of Education President Felicia Ortiz of Las Vegas, Vice President Dr. Katherine Dockweiler of Las Vegas, and members Tim Hughes of Las Vegas, Tamara Hudson, a special education elementary teacher in Clark County School District, and student representative Malia Poblete, a junior at Durango High School in Las Vegas, with Superintendent of Public Instruction Jhone Ebert in attendance.

Discussions about the National Sleep Foundation’s recommendations in delaying school start times to approximately 8:30 a.m. resulted questions from the board about setting “guard rails,” or flexible options that become a menu for schools to set their start times.

“We want to hear from constituents in and around Nevada, what concerns we have, how to come to the solution that is first and foremost the right thing for our kids … without disrupting the logistics and things adults have to deal with,” Ortiz said.

Kristofer Huffman, NDE chief strategy officer, providing an overview of the impacts of earlier start times on students. Information from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Sleep Foundation recommends delaying school start times to help high school and middle school students achieve optimal levels of sleep between eight to nine hours per night and to improve their physical and mental health and safety. Huffman said as of the AAP article from 2014, 93% of high schools started before 8:30 a.m., with reports showing logistical challenges include coordinating bus routes, parents’ work schedules and extracurricular activities.

Dan Wold, former superintendent of Eureka County School District, said changing times requires common sense for all districts.

“Since there’s no clear peer-reviewed, double-blind studies, I would advocate for local control,” Wold said. “What might work great in Douglas (County) might not work great in Eureka. … Ask the superintendent how they did. We’d just focus on the kids, but I don’t think we know enough about this yet to make it a statewide rule.”

Carson High School Vice Principal Sue Moulden-Horton, whose daughter graduated from CHS and went on to become a high school principal in Los Angeles, said her daughter’s county voted to begin high schools at 8:30 a.m. and have experienced success.

“I believe this is the right thing to do,” Moulden-Horton said. “(Students) are walking in half asleep. You can say ‘hello, good morning,’ and they are zombies. They don’t realize you are there. I highly recommend that 8:30 start. Let’s go for it.”

Carson City School Board Trustee Matt Clapham worried the concept might end up being a temporary solution to a longterm problem if later school start times mean later bedtimes for teens.

“Are we just putting a Band-Aid on starting later so kids can go to bed later?” Clapham said. “Are people going to stay up later and when we have later exit times, is NIAA (Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association) going to say, ‘We’re going to have later games and that’s going to be abused and as time goes on and the abuses occur, parents say, ‘OK, stay up on the phone?’ I truly believe that’s what’s going to happen.”

Ortiz said the goal is to coalesce ideas between the two meetings in Carson City and Las Vegas, scheduled for 9 a.m. April 15 in the library of Desert Pines High School, to create a “menu of opportunities” for districts.

Moulden-Horton suggested contacting the employees’ unions for support and to improve teaching conditions.

Ortiz said she was pleased by the outcome at Thursday’s meeting. After the Las Vegas workshop, the state board will hold a hearing to draft language on its proposal, hold a vote and bring it before the Legislative Counsel Bureau, with Ortiz stating she expects districts to be given direction on scaled implementation or guard rails on start times.

She said feedback from teachers has been positive.

“They’re just as tired,” she said. “They’re also staying at school, grading papers, sometimes getting there at 4 in the morning, making sure they’re open for kids that need them to be. They also see how beneficial it is for kids’ performance and actually awake enough to absorb this good knowledge. I think teachers are in support of this. At the end of the day, I think it’s a win-win.”

For information, visit the Nevada State Board of Education webpage.