Herricks High School students could get a little more rest starting next school year.
At a meeting at the high school on Thursday, the Herricks school board supported a revised proposal to start the day a half-hour later, a change scientific research indicates will help students stay well rested and less stressed.
The district still has to present the plan to its teachers’ union, the Herricks Teachers Association, for further discussion, but many in the district say it’s a first step toward a broader conversation about stress and pressure in a high-performing and demanding community.
“If we’re all in this together to make sure that we’re doing what’s best for our students and our kids, then the 8 o’clock is the right thing, and there should be nothing that should preclude us from trying to really move us in that direction,” school board Trustee James Gounaris said.
A committee tasked with evaluating a later start presented a new plan Thursday to start school at 8 a.m. and end the day at 2:53 p.m., cutting Herricks’ nine class periods from 43 minutes to 42 and the time between classes from five minutes to four.
Herricks’ day currently runs from 7:30 a.m. to 2:40 p.m., the second-earliest start and the longest day among 13 comparable high-performing districts, the committee found.
Research shows later start times help teens’ physical and mental health, improve academic performance and reduce absenteeism, said Herricks principal Samuel Thompson, one of the committee’s leaders.
Herricks senior Ashwin Viswanathan, a committee member, found a study showing a half-hour later start increased the number of students getting eight or more hours of sleep from 33.6 percent to 49.7 percent.
The committee made the changes after school board members expressed concerns in December that its original proposal to cut two minutes from each class period — a total of eight days in class — would cost too much teaching time.
Cutting only one minute, the equivalent of about three class days, assuaged those concerns, board members said Thursday.
High school students also told the board in their annual conversation that night losing one minute wasn’t a big concern, Trustee Juleigh Chin said.
“Just cognitively, I think the kids will be much more focused and less jittery, and I think all of that will more than make up that one-minute loss in the classroom,” Chin said. “… They made a really great point … they’re not learning by putting minutes into a bucket.”
A wide majority of students told the board Thursday they favored the later start, school board President Nancy Feinstein said.
Viswanathan said most students who opposed it were concerned about a later end time causing conflicts with sports and other after-school activities.
But cutting time from the day resulted in an earlier end time that mitigated those worries, he said.
Because the shift requires contract negotiations, the district will now bring the proposal to the Herricks Teachers Association.
Depending on how talks with the union play out, the schedule could go into effect at the start of the next school year, officials said.
Union President Nidya Degliomini said the group is “always open to conversation” about the schedule.
The district has discussed a later start time since 2007, Thompson said.
To Gounaris and other parents, it’s the first “incremental change” in a cultural shift to put less pressure on Herricks students.
It’s not just sleep that stresses them out, Gounaris said. It’s also a heavy workload and a large amount of tests, he said, which students want to take to affirm they’re meeting the high standards set by their parents, their teachers and themselves.
Both Gounaris and Thompson said students shouldn’t be encouraged to use the extra half-hour before school to study rather than getting the extra sleep.
“If we don’t address the other issues as we address the time, I’m not sure we’re really gaining much,” Gounaris said.
Conversations between teachers and administrators about academic rigor and student stress are ongoing, Herricks High Assistant principal Brian Hodge said.
Teachers are generally accommodating if students are overwhelmed, he said, and parents should tell administrators if they’re not.
The district also started a committee this year to address social and emotional issues, Feinstein said, and it’s already discussing other ways to help high school students manage stress.
While she said Herricks has “always been a pressure-cooker,” parent Hayley Stein said she thinks the later start is an “essential beginning … to very positive changes for all students.
The new schedule would require an additional driver for a bus the district already bought, a cost of between $50,000 and $60,000, Assistant Superintendent for Business Helen Costigan said.
Thompson said it could also require longer hours for Herricks High’s cafeteria workers.
Administrators would also consider opening the school library and serving breakfast earlier to accommodate students whose parents have to drop them off at the same time, he said.
