Staff opposes SLEEP

By Emily Fruchterman

At 5:30 in the morning, sophomore Darlene Reyes reaches over to her bedside table to turn off her phone alarm, not quite ready for yet another day of school. She tiredly stumbles into her bathroom to get ready for another long, busy day. Throughout the county, students follow the same pattern, all getting up though they wish for more sleep.

It is for this reason that a parent advocacy group, titled SLEEP, is pushing for a later start time in Fairfax County Public Schools. SLEEP stands for the Start Later for Excellence in Education Proposal.

Their main goal is to have Fairfax County High Schools begin their classes, not at the current 7:20 a.m., but over an hour later at 8:30 a.m.

Though many students are short on sleep and would likely appreciate the extra rest, many would rather not change the current system.

"An extra hour would be nice, but it wouldn't really help that much," said Reyes. "It would also mess up everything."

The "everything" that Reyes is referring to is the extracurricular activities in which many students participate. If SLEEP's goals are passed, not only would school start later, it would also end at a later time. This would cause many sports practices to both start and end later.

"If you do a sport and you have to spend more time at school than we do this year, that would be bad," said Reyes. "Students and athletes want to go to their houses sooner rather than later."

Pre-IB Government teacher Stratton Shartel is of the same opinion.

"I'm against the change," said Shartel. "I think it would have a negative impact on student's ability to participate in after school activities and still get their homework done."

Not only would the change in school starting times effect the time students have to do work, some teachers feel that it will take away from their time as well.

"I would lose after school planning time that I'd probably try to make up by waking up extra early in the morning," said Shartel. "So I wouldn't even get any more sleep."

Some teachers would be affected in an even more severe manner, such as english teacher Bethany Harar, who would have to make several major changes in her schedule.

"Right now it takes me about 40 minutes to get to work. When we had the two-hour delay, I got a taste of what it would be like commuting to work with a later starting time," said Harar. "It would take me over an hour to get to school. This also would greatly increase my gas expenses."

A group, very much like SLEEP but fighting for the opposite cause, calls themselves WAKE, or Worried About Keeping Extra-curriculars. They believe that changing the starting time would lead to a severe reduction in student participation in many after school activities. If the starting times are changed, it could result in many middle school students arriving home at close to 6 in the evening. WAKE also worries that evening rush hour would be negatively affected by this change.

Because this School Board decision affects so many students and teachers, the School Board has elected to ask for input from these groups. Many AHS teachers have filled out surveys already, and students are invited to do the same on their Blackboard accounts.

"I think that it's a good idea that they have a survey for students to take," said sophomore Steven Cardenas. "It gives students a say in something that's going to affect them."

Although many students at AHS are against the change, some feel that the change would be positive.

"Right now we wake up so early that we can't concentrate in school, getting the extra sleep will help a lot with that," said junior Dara So.

By Alan Weintraut |  February 18, 2009; 12:54 PM ET
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