May 18, 2006

By Diane Chiddister

At its meeting May 11, the Yellow Springs school board unanimously approved a proposal to change the times that Yellow Springs public schools start their day, giving increased class time for Mills Lawn students and more time to sleep for teenagers. The changes will be implemented next fall.

“It’s a win-win situation for everyone,” Yellow Springs High School/McKinney School Principal John Gudgel said.

Under the new plan, Mills Lawn students will start school at 8:10 a.m. and dismiss at 2:50 p.m., which will increase instructional time by 25 minutes per day.

The day at MLS now goes from 8:30 to 2:45.

In a written proposal to the school board, Gudgel reported that Mills Lawn Principal Christine Hatton has long advocated for increased time at the elementary school, which would “reap positive benefits in not only the core subject area but also in the ‘specialist’ classes, including music and art.”

The day will begin at the McKinney School and high school at 8:50 and 8:55 respectively, and end at 3:25. YSHS/McKinney School class periods will decrease from 50 minutes to 47 minutes, which, according to Gudgel, is still above state minimum standards.

Currently, the school day begins at 8:05 at McKinney and at 8:15 at YSHS and ends at 3:15.

The later start times will provide teachers daily common collaboration time at 8 a.m. each day, said Gudgel. Mills Lawn teachers currently have the opportunity for collaboration while YSHS and McKinney teachers do not, due to their staggered planning hours, he wrote.

The later start time reflects a multitude of studies showing that adolescents perform better academically with more sleep and rest, and that their natural sleep rhythms lead them to stay up late at night and sleep later in the morning, Gudgel reported.

“The fact that our number one ‘discipline’ problem is lateness to school is often a direct result of students oversleeping. Having a later start time will not only alleviate our tardy to school problem but will also increase the attention spans of our students with the extra amount of sleep and rest,” he wrote.0

Contact: dchiddister@ysnews.com