Parents Push Back Against Proposal for Altered Start Times in Cherry Creek School District
The Cherry Creek School Board has proposed new start times for the district, impacting the 2017-18 school year. The middle and high schools would end up starting an hour later, while the elementary schools would start an hour earlier.
Elementary School changed to 7:55a.m. from 9a.m.; Middle School changed to 8:50a.m. from 7:50a.m.; High School changed to 8:15a.m. from 7:10a.m.
Cherry Creek School District claims that, after studying the issue for over a year, starting middle school and high school classes an hour later would be more beneficial to the older students. The students’ biological clocks would be more aligned to the school schedule, and they would be more alert and active in the classroom. “Chronic sleep loss in children and adolescents is one of the most common public health issues in the U.S. today,” said Judith Owens, author of American Academy of Pediatrics.While this proposal would be beneficial to older students, it would negatively impact the district’s younger students.The impact is clear as the safety of the district's elementary school students is on the forefront of many parents’ minds. Many of the parents oppose the recent proposal to change school start times.A petition has been drafted to bring a halt to this proposal.They claim that moving the elementary school start time to 7:55a.m. from 9a.m. will do more harm than good. Some points of the petition include Transportation Safety, Poor Academic Performance, Length of Day, and many more. You can view the petition in greater detail here.
“If the new start time is adopted, young children will be waiting at the bus stops or walking to school in the dark/dawn during some months of the year.”
Of the 25,000 parents who took a survey last year, a large majority were in support of the district’s proposal.
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