I’m very happy to see that Whitnall is considering a high school start time change. Early start times impact a teen’s health and ability to think and learn. The harmful effects of early start times and sleep loss have been documented repeatedly in the research literature. The evidence is overwhelming. This evidence has lead to a growing outcry from parents and medical professionals across the country. It’s good to see that Whitnall’s administration is trying to do the right thing. Parents and teachers – please support a later high school start time. The well-being of your children depends on it. Use this link to sign national petition against early high school start times: http://signon.org/sign/promote-legislation-to.fb1?source=s.fb&r_by=1521139

Do you realize how ridiculous you sound? Im pretty sure starting 30 minutes earlier wouldn't save too many lives.. Also, I don't believe school start times have changed drastically since we were in school, and our generation seems to have survived.

Dolores, you are 100% right.Greenfield, as you well know has unforunately gone in the opposite direction. How will the new law that allows school boards to judge teachers on the basis of test scores apply when students are adversly affected by early starting times?

Dolores is a nut case - she insisted the greenfield school board do a study spent $$$$$$ they didn't have to support her theory. It would have cost Greenfields district over $600,000 just to change bussing. Changing times isn't going to solve anything - The students just will have later practices/games for extra-curricular - they will start work later ending their work shifts later - and they will be up later studying and texting their friends. If you think not you are fooling yourselves - look at your kids facebook pages and see the times that messages are posted. In addition, starting later - will end up having the kids in sports/extra curricular to miss classes at the end of the day so they can leave for their activity - therefore missing important class time.

In addition - by the time they begin high school - they need to grow up - well part of growing up is learning how to get up in the morning. We all did it and we are fine.

Labeling someone a "nutcase" is very offensive. Do the research, Ann. And try to be respectful of people who have a different opinion than yours...especially when they have done the research and consulted with experts, which you, obviously, have not. If we are truly interested helping our children to be more successful in school, we should be looking everything that impacts their performance, including school start times.

And Ann, what $$$$ did Greenfield spend to support the theory that getting more sleep can help improve behavior and performance of high school students? I believe that the only cost involved keeping the central office open for a few committee meetings. From what I read, Dolores did the research herself, and invited adolescent sleep experts (medical doctors) to the meetings, who did not charge the district for their services!

This from a Greenfield Patch Facebook user: "My kids start at 7:30. They have never been late to school. They are 12, 14, 15 and 17. They wake themselves up with an alarm clock, eat, pack a lunch, shower and WALK to school. We also make them go to bed at 9pm the night before...even the 17 year old. That makes ALL the difference in the world."

David you might want to reference your readers to the Menomenee Falls School District in which they are looking to go the other direction right now. I believe it was a patch story as well. Good points can be made on both sides, but as always, coming up with the extra money is the problem.

Hey David I was suprised to see that Dolores was unable to speak at the Falls School board meeting because she is not a Falls Citizen. I think this policy should be adopted by Greenfield as well.

I need to clarify a few things. First, I never asked our district to spend money on a study. I did, however, spend countless hours researching this issue and compiling data – on my own time. I shared my findings with the district for free. Second, the most recent start time proposal had a price tag of $208,000 (not $600,000). This money was already in the budget and was to be transferred into the transportation fund. Finally, I’m actually quite sane.

Dolores, I commend and applaud you for your efforts in advocating for our children when no one else will.

Change is difficult, but I say get informed before blasting out a hasty opinion on this issue. We all grew up and were just fine with secondhand smoke, lap belts or even no restraints in rear carseats. Does this mean that, now that there is overwhelming research to the contrary, that we should just let our kids breathe second hand smoke and sit unrestrained in cars. Obviously not.

The majority of folks will "deal" with early starts. But, the evidence is undeniable. Since the early starts have been implemented, there has been an increase in teen driver fatalities, increased depression, lower test scores and impaired functioning and judgement. (see http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/hot-topics/backgrounder-later-school-start-times
and http://tinyurl.com/brookings-school-study). So, yeah, if we want to settle for what used to be OK, then I guess we are just fine with the way things are.

Get informed and make a sound decision. Visit www.StartSchoolLater.net

@Ben Hogan, since citizens pay state income and sales taxes and revenue is sent back to local school districts, a citizen has a right to speak before a school board regardless of his or her residency. That is what we did in Greenfield at my demand in the 80's. Parochialism was killed and democracy was reborn.

Happy Birthday Bill of Rights 220th

Supporting the needs of the students is never a bad idea. If we continue to live in a society that does not put education first, we will always be chasing our tails by trying to fix adults that cannot problem solve for themselves. How's about a story discussing the cost of education per year per student (~$10,000 a year) to the cost of incarceration and rehab (~$43,000 a year). Educating children is a BARGAIN!

How about another story about the completely undemocratic process in which the MATC board is chosen. Talk about taxation without representation! Robert Heule you should be all over this one. Here we have a taxing authority that is not even put in place by its' citizens.!!!!!!

Ben, get the law changed. talk to Scotty and the Fitz boys while they are still in office. I don't like the current system either, but I'm to busy with the recall effort at this time to bother with it.

The reason the teachers and principles want to do this makes sense. However they want to implement something at the expense of the students and parents. Most parents, like students have specific start and end times to their day, Think about telling your boss that every Wednesday I need to start later and leave early, once in a while would be one thing, but every week is not something that most employers would tolerate. Think about if a teacher had an aid, and the aid said I can't start until 10am and I have to leave at 2pm, the teacher would say that this probably won't work out because I need to be effective I need you here when school starts until the end of the day. But this is the effect of the teachers being in a union, they are used to being able to manipulate the system to meet their needs. There is no proof that doing this will cause test scores and grade to markedly improve. The details of this have not been fully put together, at the board meeting we heard a lot of we need to find that out, I think we can do that, nothing really concrete except that the parents lives would be impacted greatly by this. If this is implemented expect to lose 10-20% of families, We are at a competitive disadvantage, now we want to make that greater by shortening the school week for the kids, so the teachers can meet more frequently. This does not add up for for me, the ends does not justify the means.