Radnor mulls changes in school times, later start

RADNOR >> In his opening remarks at the Oct. 23 school board meeting, Radnor Township School District Superintendent Kenneth Batchelor announced that the much anticipated results from a committee studying adolescent sleep and later school starting times will be discussed at the Nov. 13 curriculum committee meeting.

Batchelor said the district had paid attention to an American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendation for later school start times for adolescents. Subsequently, the School Start Time/Sleep Task Force, formed in September 2017, was asked to study the pros and cons and come up with recommendations.

“No decision has been made, but a decision is coming,” said Batchelor, saying that a community forum to seek input will be planned for December.

“We’re going to make a decision, and we’ll move on,” he added.

Batchelor said the board might vote on whether to make changes to the secondary school start times in February or March.

Spurred by parents, district officials have been discussing later school start times since 2016. As kids get older, their sleep cycle shifts, so they tend to want to stay up later and wake up later, which can be a problem on school days when they have get up earlier than their bodies would like.

Other factors include staying up late to text on their cellphones or tablets, chatting to friends or posting on social media. Or they have homework that they haven’t completed.

In 2015, the AAP study noted that not getting enough sleep can lead to physical and mental health problems; moodiness; safety issues, such as car accidents; and poorer academic performance. That study recommended later school start times but also called for community and parent involvement.

Also, a National Sleep Foundation study that the AAP cited showed 59 percent of sixth- to eighthgraders and 87 percent of high school students got less than the recommended

8½ to 9½ hours of sleep on school nights. And a majority of high school seniors slept less than seven hours on school nights; however,

71 percent of parents were under the impression that their kids were getting enough sleep.