By Connor Loughran ’15

In light of recent proposals to push back school start times in MCPS by 20 minutes, the Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA), which is the union that represents all MCPS teachers, conducted a survey to get input from teachers and MCPS staff about the proposals. The survey, which was conducted between January 23 and February 2, reported that 63 percent of teachers and staff were opposed to changing school start times, according to The Washington Post. Additionally, a public hearing on the issue was held on January 22.

Sherwood science teacher Allison Erdman attended the first public hearing, and provided her own testimony. “I do not dispute that adolescents need more sleep, but I do not see how changes [in regards to] bell times equals more time in a student’s day,” Erdman said. “The request to change bell times is based on studies showing adolescents need more sleep. . . However, in order to get more sleep, students actually need to sleep more, i.e. have a lifestyle that will benefit from this change,” she said, citing that afterschool activities, sports and other responsibilities limit a student’s ability to sleep.

The results of the surveys were published in a memo from MCEA this week, and showed overall opposition from teachers to the proposed changes. The survey cites the costs and difficulties teachers would face with rescheduling daycare, problems that would occur afterschool activities, and concern for students who have to work after school or take care of young children. Additionally, 47 percent of high school teachers said they felt that later start times would not help students, and may actually hurt students more.

“What’s striking is the message was the same from high school, middle school and elementary teachers. They were pretty strong in believing that it will not have any impact on [students’] academic achievement,” said Tom Israel, the executive director of the MCEA, in a Washington Post article on Saturday, February 7.

But some teachers at Sherwood approve of the new changes. “I feel like I’m a more energetic and patient teacher when I have a less rushed morning, and I think students would feel the same [about later start times],” said language resource teacher John Falls.

On February 9, a large group of MCPS parents and students staged a “sleep-in” demonstration outside the MCPS headquarters in Rockville to show support for later start times. The school board voted on the issue on February 9, and the proposal to push back middle and high school start times by 20 minutes was approved, and will be in effect for the 2015-2016 school year. Elementary schools will start 10 minutes later than usual.