Attempting to revisit the assignment of start times to different schools at Park would force us to deal with unnecessary repercussions.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), after 8:30 a.m. is the best time for middle and high school students to start their days. One of the major reasons why timing is being addressed is because high schoolers prefer more sleep than they are getting. I agree giving older students more time to sleep would be beneficial, but changing times would produce new, unnecessary problems for schools.

Also according to the CDC, elementary kids need nine to 12 hours of sleep, so the latest start of the bus cycle, what they already have, fits them. Along with the fact it takes parents a considerable amount of time to get their kids out of the door in the morning, a different start time would create issues with the later end time. If the elementary students receive an earlier dismissal the issue of childcare arises —  kids ages from four to 11 are too young to be latchkey kids.

Finally, why shouldn’t the middle schoolers have the earlier slot? From a person who took relatively harder classes while in middle school, I know for a fact the workload was still not half of what it is for high school. If anyone can handle the early rise, it’s middle schoolers.

Nobody wants to wake up early, but elementary kids need their time to sleep and the middle schoolers can deal with their time better than anyone else. Things should stay as they are.