In high school, every morning is slow and sluggish. As the day moves on, it is not hard to see the mood in students and staff change  from first to last period. What is even easier to see is the envy Shaler Area students feel toward neighboring districts who have taken steps to address that issue by having school start times pushed back. 

According to Start School Later, 33 school districts in Pennsylvania have moved to a later start time. This year Pittsburgh Public Schools pushed back start time to 7:40 a. m., 25 minutes later and Upper St. Clair high moved it start time back 30 minutes to 8 a.m.. In 2021, neighboring district Hampton moved it start time back 50 minutes to 8:20 a.m., an entire hour later than our start time.

For the betterment of students and staff all around, we need to start looking into a later start time here in Shaler Area. 

If someone has a sports match far away on a Tuesday or Thursday night, those players do not get home until 10 p.m. or even later depending on the conditions of the game. Add in any homework that did not get done before, food, a shower, and actually getting to sleep, it is not hard to see why so many students, especially athletes, go into their first period sluggish.

It is even easier to see the effects of a later start time when we look back at the pandemic. Shaler Area started an hour later on virtual instruction days. Students loved how this allowed them to sleep in, something that could be replicated through a later start time. 

Over the years every teacher I have had has, at one point or another, said “Wake up” in one form or another to the entire class due to low participation. The feedback is pretty unanimous when thinking about the start time changing. People would not complain, students and staff alike.

“What’s been happening is that districts just push schools back by 15 to 30 minutes, which wouldn’t change much in my life. It would feel great. No one would ever complain about 15 to 30 extra minutes of sleep, but on the scale of students’ brains needing the extra sleep, that small amount of time doesn’t change too much,” physics teacher Mr. Brian Davis said.

What holds us back with this issue is, unfortunately, us. 

“We talked a little bit about this last year. We’ve always considered it. There’s a few factors that have played into us not making that decision,” Superintendent Dr. Sean Aiken said.

Of course any change will have hurdles to jump through. A lack of effort and a lack of extra thought is stopping the topic from making real headway.   

There is no perfect solution, but if districts like Hampton and Upper St. Clair can find ways to make it work, why can’t Shaler Area?