Seattle Schools consider flipping grade school, high school start times

Most sleep experts agree that teenagers need a few extra hours in the morning to be productive in school, but most high schools, including those in Seattle, start their classes early in the morning while younger kids start later.

The Seattle School Board president is pushing to flip those starting times to give students the best chance of succeeding.

Board president Sharon Peaslee knows that the start times are not ideal. Parents of younger kids have to wait to go to work until 8:30 a.m. or 9 a.m. while waiting with their kids at the bus. Parents of older kids lament their teens aren’t getting the sleep they need because the bell rings too early.

Peaslee has two teenagers in her home, and she said the start times need a change. “We are moving in the direction of possibly flipping start times,” she said. “My hope is that we will be able to accomplish that in the school year 2015-16, but that is yet to be determined.”

The school board made the first small step in that direction this week by reorganizing the bus schedules and making them more uniform for the upcoming school year.

Gone is the old system that had more than two dozen pick up and drop off schedules, which was based on the old school assignment system. There are now just three bus schedules for the entire district. It will save the district about $3 million for the upcoming school year.

And with three bus schedules to work with, Peaslee said it will be easier to flip who’s on those buses if they decide to flip the school start times.

The Seattle Schools will continue to tweak the bus system and starting times. This current change is only on the books for the next school year.

The start times for next fall will be announced in a few weeks.