Marysville’s high schools may shift to a later first bell

Published 11:20 pm Sunday, September 27, 2009

MARYSVILLE — High school students in Marysville could show up to first period classes next fall more than two hours later than they do now and still not get a tardy slip.

The Marysville School Board is exploring bell schedule options that would dramatically change the daily routines of students, teachers and parents.

The proposals include a 9:25 a.m. to 4:05 p.m. school day when the new Marysville Getchell High School opens, and a 9:50 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. day at Marysville-Pilchuck High School.

The school day at Marysville-Pilchuck now starts at 7:20 a.m. and ends at 2 p.m.

“There would be a net gain for 100 percent of kids because of more rest,” said Michael Kundu, the school board president.

The board also is considering more traditional starting times for the high schools: 7:10 a.m. at Marysville Getchell and 7:35 a.m. at Marysville-Pilchuck. That would require most students catching the bus 10 minutes earlier than they do now.

The two options were whittled down from 14 proposals over the past year, said Joe Legare, the district’s transportation director.

Under either option, the starting times for the two schools will be staggered because the district is allowing students to attend either campus regardless of where they live. Students from both schools will share the same buses, meaning students from Marysville-Pilchuck will be shuttled from Marysville Getchell in the morning and students from Marysville Getchell will make a stop at Marysville-Pilchuck at the end of the day.

The net effect is an extra 25 minutes a day on the bus for students at both schools.

Kundu said national research supports a late start for high school students. A 2005 study published in the medical journal Pediatrics concluded that students have special needs in their sleep cycles and “school schedules are forcing them to lose sleep and to perform academically when they are at their worst.”

Kundu’s two sons are in high school and “I see them walking off like zombies.”

School district officials insist that no decision has been made and expect opposition to the late-start option, which could have a big impact on sports and other extracurricular participation, as well as after-school job opportunities.

“We need to have a lot of community discussion and a lot of staff discussion,” said Superintendent Larry Nyland. “It’s way too early to know which way the board will go.”

Arden Watson, president of the Marysville Education Association and a mother of a high school student, said teachers are only now becoming aware that the late-start proposal is one of the two final options.

Watson called the late-start option “a significant change to working conditions. I have no idea what MEA members think about this but I can probably guess.”

Mary Ann Bockman has three children, including two in high school. She’s open to hearing the arguments for a late start, but so far isn’t sold on the idea.

“I don’t see it increasing their amount of sleep,” she said. “They still have so much they need to get done — sports, homework, work — in the same amount of time.”

Mike LaRosa, a Marysville dad who will have a daughter in high school next year, said he knows a later starting time could affect peoples’ lives, but he likes the idea of teenagers getting to sleep in. Younger children go to bed earlier and tend to wake up earlier, while teenagers stay up late with their studies, he said.

“I think schools have been doing it backwards for all these years,” he said. “They are fighting a losing battle and a lot of kids fall through the cracks.”

James Hatley, 16, a junior at Marysville-Pilchuck, said he would prefer the early start time.

“I would want to get the day done early,” he said. “It leaves more time for homework.”

Changing school starting times can be a tough sell.

The Fairfax County School District in Virginia decided last spring against changing its schedule from 7:20 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. start times at most of its 25 high schools, based on opposition from parents, students, teachers and business people, said Mary Shaw, a spokeswoman for the nation’s 12th largest district.

Reasons given included conflicts with sports and students’ work schedules, community access to swimming pools and fields, and day-care conflicts, with older children often looking after younger siblings after school.

“The community told us overwhelmingly they didn’t want it,” Shaw said.