Based on Civics Project, Sophomores Propose Later Start to the School Day

Vincent Borello begins at 6 a.m. when he shuts off his second alarm. He showers, dresses, and starts the day with a bowl of Fruity Pebbles. His sister Delaney drives him to school where he attends classes all day.

After his last class, AP U.S. History with Mr. Polk, Delaney drives him back home where he has an hour or so to eat the leftovers of a Chipotle burrito bowl and change into his uniform before she drives him to Chipotle for work. 

After a four or five-hour shift, Vincent is back home. It’s 9 p.m. and he’s trying to decompress and start his homework. On a good day, he’s in bed by 11 p.m.

It’s not an uncommon schedule for an ELHS student. Instead of a job at Chipotle, some have practice or a game. An away game might mean not getting home until 8 or even 10 p.m. 

Something has to give. 

Sometimes it’s homework.

Usually it’s sleep. 

According to research conducted by sophomores Lucas Mantoni, Vincent Luu, Vincent Borello, and Dominic Burack, 75% of ELHS students go to bed after 11 p.m. Almost half of those go to sleep after midnight. Rising early for school means many of them get less than eight hours of sleep. 

The four sophomores conducted a survey for their civics project, part of a state-mandated addition to the high school curriculum. 

Charged with developing an independent project for the state-mandated civics project, Mantoni, Luu, Borello, and Burack chose to examine school start times. They read studies, conducted a survey, and interviewed the nurse at the Birchland Park Middle School about student fatigue. 

The result of their work is a proposal to start the school day later. ELHS would start classes at 8:25 a.m., an hour later than it does now.

Later start times aren’t unheard of in the Pioneer Valley. Longmeadow High School begins the day at 8:00 a.m. Northampton High School kicks off its day at 9 a.m. 

It’s fair to say that high school students are not morning people. The sophomore’s research pointed out that, due to their production of the melatonin, the hormone that makes people feel sleepy, teenagers don’t often start to feel tired until later in the evening, often as late as 11 p.m.

A lack of sleep isn’t just a comfort issue, according to BPM School Nurse Natalie Burack.

“Sleep helps your brain function better,” Burack said. “It helps with memory, creativity, and cognition. Lack of sleep impairs attention, alertness, reasoning, problem-solving and can cause symptoms of depression.”

If students need more sleep, and a later start to the school day would provide it, why hasn’t it happened yet? 

“The civics project teaches you to look at counterarguments and analyze how little things may affect an entire community,” Borello said. “Changing school hours can affect businesses, bus schedules, other schools, extracurriculars. It teaches you a lot of small things in a community can have massive effects.”

Buses to ELHS carry BPMS students to school at the same time. After that, the same buses drop EL elementary students to school. A change in start times for the high school would impact every student in the district, not just the teenagers.

For students who work after school, a late start could also present problems getting to work on time or being able to work after school at all. For this reason, Mantoni speculated, 31% of survey respondents opposed a later start to the school day.

Borello, Mantoni, Luu, and Burack haven’t given up on the idea. They plan to push their proposal. 

“The civic project helps you look deeper into things,” Dominic Burack said. “If there’s a problem, there’s not always an easy fix.” 

“You can be involved in your community,” Borello adds. “Students can make an impact on their community.”