Superintendent Ron Thiele has declared that next year the school start time will be changed to eight o’clock in the morning. Thiele came to a conclusion that students require more sleep based on scientific research, and he believes that this will have a positive impact overall.
While Martin has hope for a valuable effect, chemistry and physics teacher Mark Buchli believes that schools should start later than 8:30 a.m.
“I’m disappointed that the district administration did not follow the guidelines from doctors. This has been studied for a long time—it’s all about the data,” Buchli said.
Martin concludes that the starting bell time will always be debated and disagreed upon because it is impossible to find a perfect balance of a variety of schedules.
“Although the primary source of changing the start time was to improve students’ health, it’s something that nobody will ever be completely happy with. Depending on what each individual is involved in, there will be different impacts,” Martin said.