Local officials oppose earlier school day

Local lawmakers and school district officials oppose a state senate bill that would ban school districts from starting classes before 8:30 a.m.

State Sen. Sandra Williams, D-Cleveland, introduced Senate Bill 218 last week. Area senators Matt Huffman, R-Lima, and Robert McColley, R-Napoleon, oppose her proposal.

"This is a decision best left up to local school boards based on their students' and district's characteristics," McColley said. "There are so many kinds of schools in the state based on what they do and how they do it. Really the folks on the ground - superintendents, principals - are in the best position to make those decisions throughout the year."

Huffman said he generally opposes state mandates that tell local school officials how to run day-to-day operations because the rules usually cause more problems than they solve.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests classes start later to help students, especially those in middle and high school, arrive ready to learn.

Four out of five schools in the U.S. start classes before the recommended 8:30 a.m. start time, according to a 2015 CDC study. Locally, Marion Local Schools, as well St. Marys and Celina primary to intermediate students start at the recommended start time or later.

Later start times provide adolescents the opportunity to get sufficient sleep on school nights, which optimizes daytime alertness, reduces tardiness and improves school attendance, the American Academy for Sleep Medicine stated. Early middle school and high school start times work contrary to adolescent circadian rhythms and truncate students' sleep opportunity, resulting in chronic sleep loss.

The AASM recommends that teenagers ages 13-18 should sleep 8-10 hours on a regular basis to promote optimal health. However, CDC data show that 68.4% of high school students report sleeping seven hours or less on school nights.

Opposed to the bill, Celina school board member and parent Matt Gilmore asked "if kids need more sleep, why don't we give kids a mandated bed time instead - that's essentially what we're doing."

Fort Recovery superintendent Larry Brown said he is aware of the findings about the need for sleep but opposes the bill because Ohio Revised Code gives local schools districts control to start before 8:30 a.m. if they desire.

"This Ohio Senate Bill is one more example of an attempt to mandate specific policy related to school attendance, thus taking that control away from the individual school boards within our state," he continued, echoing many local superintendents' opposition.

Celina and St. Marys middle and high school students start school at 7:25 a.m. and younger students begin later in the morning. Older students at other local schools begin at 8 a.m. or shortly thereafter.

Celina school board member and former teacher Bill Sell opposes the bill but said he understands high school students need more sleep and recalled half his students were tired during first period.

Superintendents Ken Schmiesing, Celina, and Bill Ruane, St. Marys, said they have staggered start times because the districts would need double the number of bus drivers and buses to take all students to school at once.

Coldwater superintendent Jason Wood and Minster superintendent Brenda Boeke both said starting class later could stress parents and guardians who take their children to school and pick them up and may force them to change their schedules.

Sell and Parkway superintendent Jeanne Osterfeld said the later start and later ending time would cause difficulties for students who participate in extracurricular actives or have jobs after school.

The bill has been referred to a committee and has not yet come to a vote. Before similar legislature is introduced, Gilmore said lawmakers need to talk to school officials.