ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, November 11, 1996 TAG: 9611110006
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
RESEARCHERS have found that high school students' inner clocks don't jibe with early class starting times. Teens in the Roanoke Valley agree.
Adam Taylor occasionally nods off in his afternoon classes at Stonewall Jackson Middle School.
"I took a nap in a class the other day, and the teacher woke me up," said Taylor, an eighth-grader. "I get so sleepy sometimes I can't stay awake."
Taylor, 13, said he doesn't go to bed until 11:30 some nights. He gets up at 6 to get ready for school. He wishes school wouldn't begin until9.
Roanoke's middle schools begin classes at 7:40, one of the earliest starting times for schools in the Roanoke Valley. Salem High School starts classes at7:50.
In Roanoke, several hundred students begin so-called "zero period" classes at 7:30 at Patrick Henry and William Fleming high schools for extra courses they want to take, but these are voluntary. The starting time for the high schools' regular day is 8:25.
Michael Short, 13, gets up at 6, too, so he can get to Jackson Middle on time. He goes to bed about 9:30 at night, but he said he still needs a nap each afternoon after school.
Eighth-grader Annette Martin sleeps late on weekends to try to make up for the loss of sleep during the week. She stays up until 11 some weeknights.
"I'm sleepy sometimes in the morning. I'd like for school to start about 9," said Martin, 13, a Jackson student.
Some middle school students have to catch the bus by 7, although classes don't begin until 7:40. During the winter, some catch the bus or walk to school while it's still dark.
The starting times for Roanoke's schools are staggered because the city, like most school systems, doesn't have enough buses and drivers to open all schools at the same time. Roanoke opens its middle schools first, but some localities begin elementary schools first. In others, high schools have the earliest starting time.
Researchers have found that the schedules for many middle and high schools are not geared to the biological clocks of teen-agers.
When children hit puberty, researchers say, they are more inclined to want to stay up late and to sleep in - not to get up at 6 to get ready to catch a school bus.
Teens should be starting to school later to coincide with changing sleep cycles as they grow older, researchers say. Some studies have shown that teen-agers going through puberty need at least eight hours of sleep a night to function at an optimal level.
A study at the Sleep Disorder Center at Johns Hopkins University found that teen-agers who start the school day later perform better academically. The researchers said that students who are deprived of sleep are inattentive sometimes and have difficulty concentrating.
Despite the findings, few school systems in the nation have changed their schedules to accommodate the teen-ager's biological clock, according to School Board News, a publication of the National School Boards Association. Many middle and high schools in large urban areas begin at 7:30 or even7.
"I'd like to see [middle schools] start a little later - about 8:30," said Sandra Puckett, principal of Addison Aerospace Magnet Middle School in Roanoke. "For a lot of kids - and me - 7:40 is a little early.'"
Puckett, a former coordinator of middle schools for the city, said some students are drowsy early in the morning, especially during first period classes.
But many students prefer the early starting time so they can get out earlier in the afternoons, Puckett said. "It's about half and half among the students - half like it, and half don't."
Jackson Middle seventh-grader Elyshia Burnette said she goes to bed by 9 on weeknights so she can get enough sleep. Her parents let her stay up late on weekends, but "they make me go to bed early during the week so I won't be so sleepy in the morning."
Sixth-grader Jackie Wilson and several other students arrive at Jackson Middle by 7 because they want to help put up the flag. Wilson, 11, said he goes to bed about 8 each night and gets plenty of sleep.
"I get up early, but I don't get sleepy," he said. "It's not a problem for me."
Michael Shell, a sixth-grader, also arrives at Jackson by 7 some mornings to help put up the flag. He said his father brings him to school. "It's a real honor to help with the flag, but I wish they would start school later."
Jackson Principal Helen Townsend said seventh-and eighth-graders probably would be more alert if school started about8.
Townsend said she understands the system's need to stagger opening times, because many buses make three runs each morning to serve the three grade levels.
"You can't have buses for every school, so you have to do a balancing act," she said.
Linda Bigger Brown, principal of Ruffner Middle School, thinks a later starting time might benefit students in their early teens because they probably would be more attentive.
From a selfish viewpoint, she said, the early start is great for her and the teachers. "We can complete the day and finish early in the afternoon.
Still, she'd like at least to try a later starting time to see how it would work.
But a survey of teaching staffs, parents and site-based management councils at middle schools last year found little support for a later opening time.
Because of bus schedules and the lack of support, Roanoke Superintendent Wayne Harris said, school officials are not considering any change in the starting time for middle schools even though some students favor it.
"It's not something we're looking at now," Harris said, but he added that officials have begun a preliminary study of the possibility of a longer school day and school year.
Like many areas in the nation, Roanoke Valley school systems stagger schedules because each bus makes several runs, but the localities have different rationales in scheduling.
In Roanoke, the two high schools and five of the elementary schools open at 8:25; the other 16 elementary schools begin at9.
Elementary schools open last to keep younger elementary children from walking to school or waiting for a bus in darkness during winter, said Richard Kelley, assistant superintendent for operations.
In Roanoke County, however, elementary schools begin the earliest, at 7:55, with middle and high schools opening at8:25.
The county opens elementary schools first because many parents want to drop off their children on their way to work, Superintendent Deanna Gordon said.
The safety of elementary children catching a bus early in the morning has not been an issue in the county.
In Salem, the city's high school opens first, at 7:50, followed by elementary schools at 8:05 and the middle school at8:45.
Superintendent Wayne Tripp said the high school begins early in Salem so students can finish the school day early and have enough time for activities, sports and jobs after school.
Like Roanoke County, Salem opens its elementary schools earlier than Roanoke because many parents drop their children off en route to their jobs.
"Transportation largely governs what you can do," Tripp said. Ideally, he'd like to open all schools about 8, but that's impossible unless Salem buys more buses.
The 7:50 starting time for Salem High seems acceptable because most students get enough sleep and they get out earlier in the afternoon, he said.
The starting time for the county's middle and high schools "works out about right," Gordon said. "If we opened later, it would interfere with sports and students' jobs in the afternoon."
School officials said there have been few complaints about the starting time for Roanoke's high schools.
"It seems to be reasonable and works well. It provides time for after-school activities and students who have jobs in the afternoon," said Elizabeth Lee, Patrick Henry's principal.
High school students can get a little more sleep because they start 45 minutes later than middle school students, Lee said.
Jackson's Townsend said afternoon school athletics is one argument against a later starting time for Roanoke's middle schools. The middle school teams' games are held in the afternoon.
Last year, the Roanoke School Board studied the possibility of a later starting time for middle schools because Vice Chairman John Saunders worried that students were getting out too early, leaving them with too much unsupervised time.
Middle schools get out at 2; high schools close at2:40.
Saunders raised the possibility of switching starting and closing times for middle and high schools so younger teen-agers would get home later and have less time alone.
But the school system would have to spend nearly $1 million for 20 new school buses and face a $316,000 annual increase in transportation costs to make the change, Kelley said.
In addition, site-based management councils and parent committees at most of the middle and high schools said they preferred to keep the current schedule. Harris recommended no change, and the board supported him.
LENGTH: Long : 160 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Cindy Pinkston/Staff. 1. Students at Stonewall Jacksonby CNBMiddle School arrive early. Classes begin at 7:40 for middle school
students in Roanoke, and some catch the bus before 7. (headshots)
Jackie Wilson, Michael Shell, Elyshia Burnette. color.