At the school district's Community Forum on School Start Time And Sleep, Superintendent of Schools Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, pointed out it was the third community forum on the topic for the Board of Education.

The School Start Time Committee was formed after the Board of Education made a motion at its March 7 meeting for the superintendent to form a committee to research the possibilities of changing school schedules based on information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr Erardi said the committee will continue to meet and discuss the topic before delivering a final report and advisory recommendation to the school board on June 6.

Representatives of the committee's subcommittees spoke at the forum, before Dr Jennifer Kanaan shared a presentation. Assistant Superintendent of Schools Jean Evans Davila spoke about work the research committee has been doing, mostly related to attending the National Adolescent Sleep, Health, and School Start Times Conference in Washington, DC, April 27 and 28. She said the subcommittee members learned mostly about sleep deprivation and adolescent health at the conference. Ms Davila also said the research subcommittee is working to prepare a community survey that will be released shortly.

Newtown High School teacher Trent Harrison shared results from recent student surveys conducted by members of his subcommittee, and NHS Principal Lorrie Rodrigue shared news from the transportation subcommittee. Dr Rodrigue said her subcommittee worked on roughly seven transportation options, and it is working on narrowing down the options.

While summarizing the work of the committee so far, Dr Erardi said, "The recommendation coming from the committee will be [a start time of] 8 am" for NHS and NMS. After vetting the transportation options, Dr Erardi said the committee is most looking into changing the current three-tier transportation system to being a two-tier transportation system. In the two-tier option, according to Dr Erardi, NHS and NMS would begin at 8 am, Reed Intermediate School would begin at 8:55 am, and the elementary schools would begin at 9:05 am.

"The upside to this option and to any option that has a two-tiered system," said Dr Erardi, "... it will either eliminate or nearly eliminate any students standing in the dark or getting home in the dark."

Dr Erardi also said the committee is looking at options concerning the length of the school day.

The superintendent said there is still "homework" the committee needs to complete, but the presentation will be ready for the school board for June 6. The advisory recommendation is expected to include whether implementation for the 2017-18 or 2018-19 school year is preferable, according to Dr Erardi.

A Presentation On Adolescents And Sleep

Dr Kanaan, who works for the University of Connecticut Health, is a "sleep study expert," Dr Erardi said when introducing her.

"We are absolutely thrilled that she is here to share some of her expertise with us," he said.

Dr Kanaan's presentation shared information about adolescents and sleep.

"Sleep is not a luxury. It is really important for good health," Dr Kanaan said.

Preschool children need about 10 to 11 hours of sleep, elementary school students need about ten hours, adolescents generally require between nine and nine-and-a-half hours of sleep, and adults need between seven-and-a-half to eight hours, according to Dr Kanaan.

Adolescents are programmed to wake up later and go to bed later. Adolescents face more demands and they frequently use computers and cellphones, which she said emit a blue wave length of light that can reset a body's internal clock.

"What you have is really the perfect storm," said Dr Kanaan. "You have biological changes, you have a circadian phase delay, you also have a slowed pressure to sleep, then you have psycho-social pressures... and on top of that, now you have shifted the day to start even earlier, so you are really limiting the window in which they can get a good night's sleep."

Not getting enough sleep, according to the presentation, can cause increased depression, problems with anger, and overall emotional disregulation.

"Does it affect learning? Definitely," said Dr Kanaan.

Dr Kanaan said research she has read shared that if school start times are changed to start later, children generally continue going to bed at similar times.

Nationally, Dr Kanaan said the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention all recommend a delayed school start time.

Delayed school start times, Dr Kanaan summarized, offer students a longer time to sleep, decrease the risk of adolescents suffering depression, decrease the risk of motor vehicle accidents, improve reaction time, reduce student tardiness and absences, decrease obesity risk, and offer a potential for better grades and a better quality of life.

"That's really what you are talking about, a better quality of life for your child," said Dr Kanaan.

Time was also left at the end of the forum for people to ask questions about the presentation or about the committee's work.