Quaker Valley To Experiment With Later School Start Time

QUAKER VALLEY (KDKA) -- Quaker Valley School District is among the few in this area experimenting with a later start time for middle and high school students.

High school student Hayden Thompson just moved from Iowa to Sewickley.

And among the many changes for him is the start time for school.

In Iowa, his school started, he says, "at 8:45 in the morning."

"When I was younger, it was 7:45, but they recently increased it two years ago," he told KDKA money editor Jon Delano.

Like most young people, Hayden liked the later start.

"You get to sleep in and get a good night's rest."

"We conducted a study ourselves, surveyed our parents, and discovered there is enormous support in our community for a later start time," says Dr. Heidi Ondek, superintendent of the Quaker Valley School District.

So when school starts next week, the middle school and high school will open at 8 a.m., not 7:45 a.m.

Will fifteen minutes make a difference?

Yes, says the superintendent.

"The researchers convinced us that even a small shift can be incredibly valuable to students in their overall well-being," says Ondek.

Before the adolescent mind can get focused in the morning on academics, particularly like tough subjects like science, the experts say they need sleep -- and lots of it -- like 9-and-a-half hours.

That's why the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that no middle school or high school start before 8:30 a.m.

In 2014, the AAP declared, "A substantial body of research has now demonstrated that delaying school start times is an effective countermeasure to chronic sleep loss and has a wide range of potential benefits to students with regard to physical and mental health, safety, and academic achievement."

Most local school districts seem to have ignored this.

Delaney Morrow of Leetsdale, who just graduated from Quaker Valley, likes the change.

"Starting school sometimes before the sun's even up, it can be really hard to get focused."

If this goes well, says Ondek, watch for an even later start next year.

"It could lead to an 8:30 start by then," she says.