Fredericksburg Considering School Start and End Times
Community is invited to fill out a survey open through January 5.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
Email Adele
Fredericksburg City Public Schools is inviting members of the community to share thoughts on school start times through a survey that will be available through January 5.
“We have several Board members who have been interested in start/end times for school for several years,” deputy superintendent Matt Eberhardt wrote in an email to the Advance.
Eberhardt said division leadership and principals had internal discussions about school start times in 2021 and that a review of start times was conducted last year.
“Our general intention at that time was not to do anything based on what we heard from other divisions,” he said. “We are looking at this again.”
This year, the school day for elementary students starts at 8:20 a.m. and ends at 3:15 p.m. Middle school starts at 7:35 a.m. and ends at 2:40 p.m., and high school starts at 7:40 a.m. and ends at 2:45 p.m.
The survey “aims to gather insights on school start times to better understand the preferences and needs of our community.”
According to a 2014 report by the American Academy of Pediatrics, “research has now demonstrated that delaying school start times is an effective countermeasure to chronic sleep loss [in adolescents] and has a wide range of potential benefits to students with regard to physical and mental health, safety, and academic achievement.”
The AAP “strongly supports the efforts of school districts to optimize sleep in students and urges high schools and middle schools to aim for start times that allow students the opportunity to achieve optimal levels of sleep (8.5–9.5 hours) and to improve physical (eg, reduced obesity risk) and mental (eg, lower rates of depression) health, safety (eg, drowsy driving crashes), academic performance, and quality of life.”
But many middle and high school students have after-school sports commitments, jobs, or family responsibilities—such as caring for younger siblings while parents finish the workday—that must be balanced with school start and end times.
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