St. Paul school start times stay put, for now

There will be no change in school start times for the 39,000 students in the St. Paul district, at least until at least the 2016-2017 school year, after a board vote Tuesday night.

That means middle and high school students still will have to get to school by 7:30 a.m., instead of an hour later as proposed, and some board members aren't happy

There's a growing body of evidence that shows, by nature, teenagers are night owls. They're wired to stay awake later, and sleep in later too. A growing body of research shows that when schools have start times after 8:30 a.m., it helps older students in lots of ways.

"Attendance increases, achievement rises, referrals to nurses' offices decreases, automobile accidents decrease," Ryan Vernosh, policy director for the St. Paul district, told the board Tuesday.

Over the past year, district officials planned out several scenarios that would allow middle and high school students to start class later. And they hoped to have something in place by next fall. But none of the plans seemed to click.

One scenario: start high school at 8:30 a.m., the same time as elementary schools. The problem: the district would need hundreds of additional busses, costing millions of dollars each year.

Another option moved elementary grades to an earlier start time at 7:30 a.m.

But after weeks of gathering public input, district officials realized many parents had other concerns.

One parent, Melanie Hazelip, said an earlier start time would mean less sleep for her kids, and less time hanging out as a family in the evening because of earlier bedtimes.

"In addition to safety concerns, thinking about our really young students standing out in the dark on the cold winter mornings," she said.

Without an easier way forward, St. Paul Superintendent Valeria Silva asked board members to give the district more time to work on the issue, including exploring options for older students to use Metro Transit busses to get to school. That would hold down transportation costs and leave elementary start times where they are.

That request frustrated board member Jean O'Connell.

"I can't agree with a recommendation to push this out to the 2016-2017 school year when we've known for many, many years that this is the right thing to do for our high school kids," he said.

The board voted 4 to 3 to give the district more time to explore its options around start times over the next year, in hopes that a new schedule could be put in place by the 2016-2017 school year.

Vernosh says now there's time to dive deeper into the issue.

"It's our ultimate hope that we'll be able to come up with a more palatable alternative start time proposal that is beneficial for all the students we serve," he said.

Vernosh hopes St. Paul schools will be ready to offer those proposals to parents and students over the next several months.