The alarm is repeatedly screaming at you to wake up as you smack the snooze button over and over again. It sounds so much nicer to be unconscious, wrapped in darkness and warm blankets than it is to get up at the crack of dawn. This may seem like an unavoidable school experience, but not for some students in local areas.
Solebury School, a private boarding and day school in New Hope, has recently started an experimental schedule with later school start times. They even use “later, healthier school start times” as part of their radio advertisement.
“I don’t envision us ever going back to an 8 o’clock start time,” said Principal Thomas Wilschutz.
Solebury starts 30 minutes later four days a week, and one hour later every Wednesday. They changed their class schedules as well, it went from 50-minute blocks to 80-minute blocks. Now students have no more than two to three classes a day.
“It may not seem like much but that extra time does help—you can sleep more, study a little, and do so much more,” said Macio Sexton, 17-year old senior at Solebury.
On certain days Sexton even has 80 minutes of free time, which he said is “more than enough time to finish homework for multiple classes.”
Sexton said the schedule works better for some than it does for others. “To tell the truth if I had to take the classes I took during my junior year with this schedule, my life would be so much harder. I think this schedule is better for seniors who take more electives, than for underclassmen who have to take core classes,” he said.

Wilschutz said their special education department has had the hardest time adapting to the new schedule.
Solebury had to adjust to some challenges. Some parents work schedules were unable to adapt, as well as the public school buses. Now the school runs five or six of its own passenger minivans to provide transportation.
Clubs have built-in time to meet during the day. Sexton said the new schedule makes it a little more complicated to schedule club meetings, but Wilschutz finds that there are now more kids creating new clubs.
The school has been getting feedback throughout the year in surveys. Parents and students reported diminished homework and less anxiety in the household.
The new schedule allows students to sleep later and go to bed earlier. “The benefits are tremendous. There are years and years of research saying kids need more sleep,” said Wilschutz.
Major organizations that support later school start times include the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, the Centers for Disease Control, the National Education Association, and more.
The American Psychological Association recommends starting high school and middle school at 8:30 a.m. or later. Their data shows increased attendance rates, decreased disciplinary action, less student involved car crashes, higher student GPAs, higher state assessment scores, higher college admissions test scores, better student attention, less sleeping in class, and better quality in student and family interaction.
Michelle Crunkleton, a mother of ninth-grade twin daughters, recently pitched later school times to the Central Bucks School Board. “Sleep is so important to our mental and physical well-being. How well and how long you sleep affects everything; yet sleep is so undervalued in our society,” she said.
Sleep is especially important for students going through puberty. “Developmentally appropriate sleep helps students feel well and be well, helps them regulate their emotions better, helps them to make better decisions, eat healthier, depend less on caffeine and other stimulants to wake them up, and helps them arrive at school ready to learn,” said Crunkleton.
She does not want people to blame teens for lack of sleep, and disagrees with the idea that they all just stay up too late on phones and other devices. “Good sleep habits should definitely be a part of the conversation, but not the end of the conversation. Decades of sleep research has shown that early school start times are a problem. Parents and teens are responsible for healthy bed times, but schools are responsible for healthy wake times,” said Crunkleton.
Crunkleton pointed to the success of schools like Solebury. There will have to be personal adjustments, but everyone already has different schedules. Clubs won’t be lost in the ether, and adjustments are financially feasible.
Crunkleton does not know how her speech was received at the school board meeting. “They listened politely and thanked me, but it is hard to know just yet. I’m hoping for some action,” she said.
Private schools seem ahead of the curve right now, but there are some public schools trying out the program as well. Two Chester County School Districts, Unionville-Chadds Ford and Owen J. Roberts School, have formed “start time committees” that are in their beginning stages.
Unionville-Chadds Ford has a prominent link on their website about school start times, paired with a picture of an alarm clock. At the moment, they are trying out a program called the Chester County Student Forum Delayed Start Time Project.
Pennsylvania currently has some of the earliest start times in the nation. Crunkleton said we are the fifth worst state in that regard, but that could soon change.