Late Start Time
According to Senate Bill 328, California high schools must start no earlier than 8:30 AM beginning in the 2022-2023 school year. The bill was formed in 2019 and was approved by Gov. Gavin Newsom in the same year. It was created in the hopes that a later start time would help to reduce sleep deprivation in students. During the PUSD school board meeting on December 16th, the board approved a high school Master Bell Schedule that would make high schools start at 8:40 AM and end at 3:45 PM. A late start time pushed back by 30 minutes will have a large impact on the day-to-day schedules of students, parents, teachers and school administrators throughout the district.
According to Nicole Pi, a junior at Del Norte High School, she feels conflicted about the implementation of a new late start time: “On one hand, I’ve read several studies on the benefits to high school students with later start times in regards to deeper rest and better brain development. But on the other hand, a change in the high school schedule drastically changes the schedules for middle and elementary school too. My brother who’s currently a 3rd grader at Design39 would be starting and ending school an hour earlier, really complicating pick-up and drop-off times for my family.” Along with the change to the high school bell schedule, there will also be changes to the elementary schools and middle schools. According to the PUSD school board meeting briefing, the Master Bell Schedules for elementary schools will change to start at 7:45 AM and end at 2:00 PM and the schedules for middle schools will change to start at 8:00 AM and end at 2:45 PM. With these new schedules, conflicts will most likely arise for families with children that go to these different schools, like Nicole’s family.
Sophie Rubenstein (‘23), also feels conflicted about this change to the schedule: “I have a lot of mixed feelings for it. I like that it starts later, but I don’t love that it ends later.” The schedule change will also have a large impact on students who have jobs and other extracurriculars, like Sophie: “Since I work, I will have to adjust the time that I tell my boss that I can come in and I’m going to be going out for the gymnastics team, so I will have to budget my time in order for me to have time for me to do everything I want to do.” Nicole details the same problem: “I have clubs most days, so I’d probably get back home around 5-6 PM. Some days, I have work from 6:30 to 8:00 PM, so I’d be starting homework at 8:30 PM at the earliest, when usually, I could get a good portion done before going to work. This new schedule would definitely take a bit of getting used to.” With this new schedule comes a lot of conflicts for people with a lot of after-school activities.
Some teachers at Del Norte also seem to have the same outlook on this change to the schedule. Mr. Swanson, an AP US History teacher at Del Norte, states that there would be benefits to this late start time, like being able to have more time to work in the morning. However, he states that having certain after-school activities pushed back will affect the amount of the time that he can spend with his family on a weekday. Ms. De Alba, the AP Spanish teacher at Del Norte, states that her schedule won’t change much: “I usually stay at school until 4:30 PM and I am hoping that because I have more time in the morning, I will be able to leave at the same time I do now.”
One of the main concerns that the teachers have is about tutorial, which is offered after school every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday at Del Norte for students to get help in certain classes, to make-up tests, and ask their teachers questions. De Alba says, “What will happen with tutorials? Will students have that time to connect with their teachers when they have issues?” Swanson is also concerned about what will happen to tutorial, which, in his class, is a time that is utilized for APUSH students to go over a textbook chapter before a test.
There is both skepticism and hope surrounding this new mandate, according to both teachers and students at Del Norte, and its effects will truly be understood once it is put in place for the 2022-2023 school year.