MASON, Ohio – The typical day at Mason High School outside Cincinnati starts at 7:15 a.m.
- Current 7:15 a.m. start time is one of the earliest at any Ohio school
- Mason High School is the largest high school by student population in Ohio
- New start and end times will save the district $150,000 in transportation costs
“I have trouble in the morning.,” said Mason High School Senior Tyler Baarendse. “Falling asleep in first bell and second bell.”
He won't benefit from changes forthcoming at the school district as he'll graduate in a few months.
But starting with the 2019-2020 school year, students at one of Ohio's largest school districts will get to sleep in.
“After a yearlong study and a lot of work we've now decided to shift thirty minutes,” district spokeswoman Tracey Carson told Spectrum news 1. “So we're giving them thirty minutes more daylight from a 7:15 start to a 7:45 a.m. start for our seven through 12th graders.”
The current school day for middle and high school students (grades 7-12) runs from 7:15 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The new day will run from 7:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Grades 3 through 6 will start 25 minutes later and get out at 3:10 p.m. opposed to 3:00 p.m. And pre-Kindergarten through second grade will start and get out ten minutes later than normal.
Carson believes the current start and end times have been in place for about 20 years, but after talks with parents and students they began holding formal discussions.
“We've seen an increase in anxiety and depression in our teens now for several years... a trend of that. And we've all been looking for answers of things that we can do to help our kids be healthy. Changing the start time is just one step.”
According to a recent study by the CDC, teenagers who don't get enough sleep run a higher risk of being overweight, drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, using illegal drugs, and suffering from poor academic performance.
A 2014 School Health Policies and Practices Study found 93 percent of U.S. high schools and 83 percent of U.S. middle schools start the day before 8:30 a.m.
“7:45 is still fairly early and I know some families and students wanted us to get closed to that 8:30 time that is part of the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation. What we saw in research was even just 25 minutes does make a difference.”
Mason's 7:15 a.m. start is one of the earlier for any school in Ohio. But according to 2015 research by Live Science, it's new 7:45 a.m. start time is closer to the Ohio average of 7:52 a.m.
“I think it's a pretty good idea,” said Mason High School senior Madison Schauer. “I like the late start times. This semester I had a late arrival class so I don't have a first bell. It's already helped my day, I'm more focused and awake and aware.”
An added benefit for the district is saving $150,000 per year in transportation costs without make cuts to its busing services for students.
“We’ve tried to take a very collaborative approach when considering later school school start times and while we might not solve everything, we are hopeful that the new times will be better than our current schedule,” said Mason City Schools Superintendent Jonathan Cooper in a statement when the district made the announcement. “Really, this is the beginning of what we see becoming a larger community conversation about how we can ensure that each of our learners is healthy and engaged.”
Carson said the district is looking at modifications to the bell schedule within the school day, homework quantity and quality, and other issues the district learned from the community during the last year.