New start times in Lower Merion School District have been the basis of many heated administrator, parent, and student discussions over the past several years. Starting school at 7:30 am, Lower Merion and Harriton High School students appeared noticeably exhausted and drowsy, raising concerns among their parents and teachers.
It was also widely disputed that such an early start time disrupted students’ circadian rhythms, or their bodies’ ‘natural clock’, leading to chronic sleep deprivation, increased risk for obesity, depression, poor academic performance, substance abuse, and driving accidents. Additionally, research has found that sleep and stress levels are directly proportional, and students who receive more sleep typically are less anxious. In order to focus and mitigate stress, students should receive at least seven hours of sleep each night, which was difficult under the 7:30 start time, given that many students’ buses arrived as early as 6:45 am and they were occupied with hours of homework every night, addition to after school activities after school, leading to typically late bedtimes.
Nevertheless, the parents of elementary students claimed that creating later high school start times would negatively affect their children. Many discussed how their older children would typically pick up their younger children from school- something that would no longer be possible if high school students ended the day before middle or elementary school. This, in turn, would place pressure on parents to arrange after school care for their younger children, as many parents would not return from work until after their children were released from school.
Moreover, high school student athletes became concerned with how their after school activities would function in tandem with later start times. Since the actual times of students’ games or matches would remain the same, students would miss two whole classes every time they had an away game or match, while last year they would typically only miss one. This concerned students as they would have greater pressure to arrange when to make up assessments or put aside extra time to complete their missed classwork under these conditions.
Weighing both parties’ concerns, the school board ultimately voted 7 to 2 in favor of new start times, effective September of 2024. The new schedule most dramatically affected high schoolers, switching from a 7:30 am to 2:40 pm school day to 8:30 am to 3:15 pm, starting one hour later and shortening the school day by thirty five minutes. The new middle school schedule became 8:00 a.m. to 2:35 p.m and elementary school became 9:10 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Since high school students would get out at 3:15 pm, they would be able to care for their elementary school siblings after school. While high school students and their parents were generally happy with the change, teachers and younger students’ parents were weary of how the schedule would ultimately play out.
As we are nearing three months into the 2024-25 school year, Harriton students, administrators, and parents have been able to adjust to the new schedule. The feelings have been generally positive, with high school students feeling like they are more awake for school, get better sleep, and can focus better in their classes. Cami Wilkinson ‘25 says she “no longer feels rushed in the morning”, while Eden McCloskey ‘25 says she “feels way more productive and energized at school”. Amanda Wurster ‘25 too has felt the positive impact, claiming “it actually makes a big difference to me. It’s so helpful to sleep.”
Students have, nevertheless, complained that with fall sports schedules, they had to miss a significant amount of class time for games and matches, causing them to have to make up more work than with the old schedule. Daria Nikolic ‘25 claims that “now when I leave for soccer I have to miss a full double set of physics. I now make up whole labs at home”. Solange Gerdeman ‘25, member of the tennis team, claims “If you have away games, you have to basically miss your whole last half of the day, and do not know when you will get back from the match. It is super inconvenient. I don’t like the fact that it pushes everything further.” Tess Heller ‘25 is a member of the volleyball team and discussed how she “had to miss a lot more school” under the new schedule, but “it is so worth it since [she is] no longer exhausted”.
Ultimately, it is great that the school board was able to respond to research and concerns by implementing a plan which, for the most part, accommodates all parties. It is clear that while this change has been positive for some groups of people, there are still others who do not feel benefited by the change. Going forward, we can only hope that the new schedule continues to function well and help students perform their best.
