Vol. 48 No. 11 Cherry Hill High School East: 1750 Kresson Road, Cherry Hill, NJ 08003 June 2014

www.eastside-online.org

Sleep and School Start Time Special By Gilana Levavi (‘14) Eastside Opinions Editor

Sleepy Scholar art by Rachel Pacitti (‘15)/ Eastside Art DirectorClock and thumbtacks by Gilana Levavi (‘14)/ Eastside Opinions EditorWoodgrain on desk courtesy of cpsfoil.com

Note:

This publication

contains the

commentary,

and opinions

analysis,

of its writer.

In March, 320 East students – approximate-ly 15% of the student body – were surveyed about sleep and school start time. The surveyed population consisted of 74 freshmen, 64 sopho-mores, 75 juniors, 78 seniors and 29 students who did not specify their grade level. The survey was distributed in home-rooms, health classes and study halls so as to ensure a random sam-pling of students.

The results dem-onstrate many strong trends in students’ sleep habits, sleep depriva-tion, and opinions about the change in school start time. On the sur-vey, many students also shared their thoughts and opinions in written comments. The statisti-cal results of the survey, as well as written quotes from students, are pre-sented throughout this publication.

The SurveyLooking in on almost

any class at East, glaring evidence of sleep depriva-tion is all around, as stu-dents yawn and stretch, prop their heads up, and squirm in their seats, all in an arduous struggle to simply stay awake.

About two-thirds of stu-dents reported losing that struggle (by falling asleep in class) at least once in the five days prior to tak-ing the sleep and school start time survey.

According to the Nation-al Sleep Foundation, teens need between 8.5 to 9.25 hours of sleep per night to function best. Nationwide, only about 15 percent of students report sleeping 8.5 hours on weekdays.

At East, the numbers are more extreme. Just 3.1 percent of East students report sleeping 8-9 hours on school nights, with no student reporting 9 or more hours.

Included on the survey was an adapted version of a test for sleep deprivation, based on symptoms, and

developed by Dr. James Maas, globally-recognized sleep expert. According to this test, 98.4 percent of East students are sleep-deprived.

Sleep deprivation at East is a health crisis, which, especially when compared with national statistics on both fronts, is much more signif icant than any ac-ademic defi-cit that could possibly be r e m e d i e d by adding 5 minutes to each class.

Sleep is a basic human need, in the same way as food, water and shelter. Without it, over time, the body and mind cannot function.

When we sleep, critical processes occur within our brains and bodies. During sleep, the brain strength-ens important neural con-nections, and prunes away unneeded ones, playing a crucial role in learning, memory and decision-making, skills especially important to students. Much growth and repair

happens throughout the body during sleep as well.

“Sleep is not optional when it comes to your health,” said Mrs. Sheri Orlando, who teaches about sleep in the psy-chology courses at East. “Sleep is just as important as exercising and eating right and taking your vita-

mins.”B e i n g

deprived of sleep has pro-f o u n d i m p a c t s on daily function-ing. Sleep

deprivation causes difficul-ties in focusing and man-aging mood. It decreases reaction time and impairs coordination. It suppress-es the immune system and results in weight gain.

“[Sleep is] not something that you get to do when you finish everything else,” said Orlando. “It should take a priority in your life because it ’s

very important to your overall health, and the management of your stress, and a lot of the things that we do to keep ourselves healthy. Sleep is integral in that process.”

Yet it is difficult for teens to prioritize sleep when they are required to be in school at 7:30 a.m. Teens tend to stay up very late – at East, 62.6 percent of report going to sleep after 11 p.m. on school nights, with about 20 percent of that group (12.5 percent of the population as a whole) going to bed after 1 a.m. – and that is largely not by personal choice.

In addition to societal demands, such as school, extracurriculars and jobs, which influence when teens sleep, two biological factors also control when we sleep. First, sleep-wake homeostasis means that the longer one has been awake, the more pressure there is to sleep. Second, Circadian rhythms are dai-ly internal biological cycles that control our sleep cycle

through the release of such hormones as me-

latonin, which in-duces sleep, and

Sleep is a basic human

need, in the same way as food, water

and shelter.

See SLEEP, pg. 2

All articles in this publication are by Gilana Levavi (‘14)/

Eastside Opinions Editor

Page 2 EASTSIDE June 2014

SPECIAL

cortisol, which is associated with wakefulness. Research demonstrates that in ado-lescents, both the onset and termination of melatonin is delayed, making it natural for the average adolescent to go to sleep after 11 p.m. and still be sleepy through-out the morning. For people of most ages, levels of cor-tisol peak in the morning, and then decline as the day goes on. In adolescents, however, cortisol levels vary much less throughout the day, another biological ex-planation for the sleepiness teens feel in the morning and the weaker pressure to sleep that they experience in the evening. Though people may have different chronotypes, or time-of-day preferences,(e.g. being a “morning person”), these changes in adolescent Cir-cadian rhythms makes teens much more likely to favor later times.

“Their brain doesn’t real-ly … want to be awake and functioning at 7:30 in the morning,” said Mrs. Grace Ermey, East psychology teacher.

Although, as Orlando pointed out, the extra half hour is not necessarily making students sleep-de-prived, it is certainly con-tributing to their cumula-tive sleep deprivation.

Benefits of starting later

The alternative to forc-ing teens to be in school at times when they are biologically programmed to be sleeping? Start school later. There is a nationwide movement to do just this.

In February, University

of Minnesota’s Center for Applied Research and Edu-cational Improvement re-leased the results of a study on the Impact of Later High School Start Times on the Health and Academic Per-formance of High School Students. The report ex-amined eight public high schools, in three different states, that pushed back their start times. Research-ers surveyed students about their sleep and lifestyle habits, and gathered data on academic performance and attendance from before and after the change.

The study found signifi-cant improvements in aca-demic performance and at-tendance rates in schools that delayed their start times to 8:35 a.m. or later. When one school shifted its start time from 7:35 a.m. to 8:55 a.m., the number of car crashes for teen drivers in the area decreased by 70 percent. And in schools that moved their start times to 8:30 or later, more than 60 percent of students have been able to sleep for at least 8 hours per night, re-sulting in increased alert-ness, improved mood and overall better health.

It seems that a surer way to improve academic performance is not to make school start earlier, but to make it start later. For healthier, even more suc-cessful schools, Cherry Hill should push our high school start times back, ideally to 8:30 or later, but at least past 8 a.m.

Although some believe that effects of sleep depri-vation are not as severe in high-achieving students, research shows benefits for all demographics when start times are delayed.

Though there would be logistical challenges in-volved in delaying our high school start time, many other schools have success-fully done so. A large ob-stacle is transportation, as the District uses the same buses for elementary, mid-dle and high school routes. The idea of reversing the order in which each level of school opens should be considered, for example, starting elementary school at 8:00 a.m., middle school at 8:30, and high school at 9. This would likely make the high school day end at about 3:30, just the time of day when teens’ energy lev-els tend to crash. Elemen-tary school children typi-cally go to sleep earlier and wake up earlier, so coming to school earlier would not contradict their biological programming.

Another challenge is sports schedules. Practice times could be adjusted. But, because many of the schools East competes against end school and start sports much earlier than 3:30, athletes would likely have to miss class of-ten to attend away games. Perhaps an optional “zero-period” could be held before school, beginning at 8 a.m., so student-athletes, and others, could opt to take a class then rather than a pe-riod late in the afternoon.

Though there would undeniably be challenges involved in delaying high school start times, the chal-lenges that sleep-deprived students face on a daily ba-sis far out-weigh these lo-gistical challenges. Cherry Hill needs to make a con-certed effort to make the school schedule healthier for all.

“By increasing the school day, you may have increased class time by a few minutes, but you’re putting the health of students at risk. We end up not concentrating in class and falling asleep do-

ing homework.”Bernadette Davis (‘16)

“I don’t think more class time is necessary since we still learn the material no matter how

much time we have.” Christian Termine

(‘17)

Push back school start time for students to get needed sleepContinued from pg. 1

“I don’t feel awake un-til close to 9:00 a.m., the morning classes are a blur and pointless.”

Sarah Birchmeier (‘14)

“It is affecting the health of students and having a nega-tive impact on aca-demic performance.”

Anonymous (‘15)

“This year I have had to stay up later due to commitments and jobs and lack of sleep has impacted almost every-

thing in my life.”Noah (‘14)

“I think the extra half hour added this year was necessary because the loss of class time last year was too great. However, school should start at 8 or even later, because it is proven that teenagers do not function well in the early morning while

younger kids do.”Elisabeth Siegel (‘14)

“It is a proven fact that teenagers need more sleep and have differ-ent sleep cycles so I don’t understand why

we start so early.” Jenna Simons (‘17)

“The school has a dif-ferent vibe from last year – it’s noticeable. It’s like people aren’t as happy / full of energy

anymore.”Nancy Zheng (‘15)

“I always struggle to stay focused for the en-tire hour or hour and a half; a shorter class time would keep me fo-

cused.”Vince Guckin (‘16)

“Even though it is im-portant to have extra time in classes, if this extra half hour is hav-ing a negative effect [on] students’ grades, it should be changed be-fore students feel more stressed, tired and

lazy.”Adriana Rivera (‘17)

“The early start time has had a noticeable detrimental effect on all students. Barely anyone fell asleep dur-ing class last year, but this year it is a common

theme.” Marisa Camacho (‘15)

Survey shows trends in students’ sleep habits

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YES 94.5%

NO5.5%

D

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ts-On weekends, 38.8 per-cent of students sleep for nine hours or more per night. On school nights, no student reported sleeping for nine hours or more.

-12.5 percent of students report going to bed after 1 a.m. on school nights.

Alarm clock art by Helena Sirken (‘15)/Eastside Art Director

Graphs by Gilana Levavi (‘14)/ East-dide Opinions Editor

- 3.1 percent of students sleep for 8-9 hours on school nights. On weekends, that number is 27.2 percent.

Rather than class time, add more learning experiencesThe major driving force behind the push to add more time

to the school day seems to be the belief that more class time is beneficial.

“If I could add more instructional time to the stu-dent day, I would,” said Reusche. “There’s noth-ing magical about 30 minutes…any time that I can create more opportunities for students and teachers to be able to interact, then I will look to take advantage of that.”

Though this idea seems logical enough, many do not subscribe to it.

First, the idea that more class time helps education contrasts sharply with the views of the East student body.

When asked on the sleep and school start time survey whether increasing class time enhances their academic performance and improves their education, 89% of students responded “no”.

As one anonymous junior wrote on the survey, “I feel that if the added time is appropriately used, then the increase in class time is beneficial. Over-all, however, I feel the increase has not benefitted me.”

According to a study on The Impact of Learning Time on Academic Achievements, conducted in 2011 by California State University in Sacramento, “The relationship between just the time allocated to learning and student academic outcomes – without controls for the effective the use of that time – remains unclear.”

Split across 6 academic classes on schedule days 1-4, and 4 classes on days 5 and 6, the added half hour adds only 5 minutes to each class on schedule days 1-4, and about 8 minutes on schedule days 5 and 6, a negligible amount of time, especially when students can barely focus anyway due to drowsiness.

At the most highly respected educational institutions in this country – col-leges and universities – students attend class for 12-15 hours per week.

Our current high school schedule, with school in session for 7 hours per day 5 days a week, means we spend 35 hours in school every week. Even accounting for approximately one hour of lunch/break every day, and a few minutes in between classes, East scholars spend almost twice as much time in class per week than the average college student.

If the number of hours spent in class is such an important factor, then

why are institutions in which students spend such a small amount of time in class so prestigious?

In colleges and universities, rather than spending 7 hours in class every day, students split their time

among more diverse kinds of learning. For ex-ample, college students often attend some large

lecture classes, but also small discussion sec-tions. They study in peer groups, meet with professors one-on-one, perform research, participate in extracurriculars. All of these different kinds of learning that one student can experience in college produces a well-

educated, adaptable person, to a degree that sitting through 7 hours of similarly-structured classes cannot.

Though it would be impractical to suggest that high school could be structured like typical uni-versities, with all of the independence that struc-ture allows for, the value of exposure to diverse kinds of learning holds true for all ages.

Rather than using half an hour per day to just add a negligible few minutes of desk time to each

class, it would be much more beneficial for stu-dents to devote those 2.5 extra hours per week to

service learning, or to a research project, or even to an already-existing extracurricular activity. A set of

options and guidelines about how this time can be used could be developed. Then each student, working with his/

her guidance counselor and teachers, would come up with a plan decide how they wanted to use that time. They could

choose to spend their hours at any time of the day – not just 7:30 a.m. Guidance counselors or faculty advisors would approve each

student’s plan, and throughout the year, monitor the student and enforce the guidelines. This one-on-one interaction between students and teachers would be more impactful than another few minutes of in-class teacher-stu-dent interaction.

The amount of time, on paper, that school is in session is insignificant when compared with the way in which that time is used. It is not the quan-tity of time that students spend interacting with teachers, but the quality of those interactions that really matters. Rather than using those 2.5 hours per week to just slap a few more minutes onto each class, empower students to turn those hours into learning experiences that they will remember forever.

June 2014 EASTSIDE Page 3

SPECIALA look at the process that led to a longer school day

Students and public should have been involved in processWhen the change to

7:30 a.m. start time was anounced in November 2012, many students were taken by surprise.

According to a District statement released around that time, both the District bargaining committee, and the Union’s bargaining unit, agreed at their first meeting to keep all mat-ters discussed strictly con-fidential. This confidential-ity is standard in collective bargaining in New Jersey as well as many other, but not all, states. The purpose is to ensure that the bar-gaining process can occur effectively between the two parties, without outside in-terference.

As Dr. Reusche said, “When you are negotiating, you cannot take your topics for negotiations and go out and seek input.”

For this reason, she said, the public, including stu-dents and parents, could not be involved in discus-

sions about extending the school day.

Yet, the addition of a half hour to the beginning of the school day is a change that affects much more than teachers’ work schedules. It has a profound impact on students’ lives as well. Therefore, it was unfair to exclude students from voic-ing their opinions during the process of deciding to extend the school day.

Indeed, the public need not be involved in work-ing out the intricate details of the teachers’ contract. But prior to the initiation of these private and spe-cific negotiations, or even during the same time, but outside of those private meetings and about the general idea of lengthening the school day, the input of students, parents and the public at large could have and should have been sought and expressed. To ensure that adding time to the school day was the

best decision for the overall benefit of all whom it af-fects, students and parents should have been given the opportunity to express their opinions in an organized and effective manner. For example, a survey could have been conducted, in the same way that School Climate Surveys are con-ducted periodically, to find out what students think of the school day length, start time, schedule, and more. More people could have come to school board meetings, written to board members and spoken out.

Though ample time was given between the an-nouncement of the change in November 2012 and its implementation the follow-ing September, there is lit-tle value in this time if, at the time of the announce-ment, it is too late for the public to have any impact.

As it is, strict confiden-tiality in negotiations can be difficult to maintain, be-

cause each bargaining unit represents a larger popula-tion – for example, CHEA represents its members- and continually reports back to that population on the discussions that oc-curred in closed-door nego-tiations meetings, to gather their opinions.

“I think that a lot of people knew that the dis-cussions were ongoing, but, once they started, I think that there was this air of caution to make sure that false information, rumors didn’t start leaking out,” said Mr. Tom Rosenberg, a CHEA representative.

But a more effective way to prevent rumors would be to engage the public in voicing opinions about the general idea of extending the day, and then make it clear that private union ne-gotiations would also have to take place.

Reusche said that there were some parents on an initial committee to dis-

cuss scheduling, but that they barely discussed add-ing time to the day.

“It was not a lengthy dis-cussion, because everybody knew that it was some-thing that would have to be part of a negotiations pro-cess, so they didn’t spend a lot of time talking about it within that committee,” said Reusche.

CHEA serves the incred-ibly important role of pro-tecting the rights of teach-ers and other school staff. But its purpose is not to prevent other constituents, such as students, from voicing their opinions. It is problematic that in the case of adding 30 minutes to the school day, the neces-sity of union negotiations largely limited the ability of the public to give input. For the future, this needs to be amended to allow all who would be affected by a change of this nature to voice their opinions in an appropriate manner.

The process that eventu-ally resulted in the change in school start time began earlier than 2010. At that time, a schedule commit-tee of administrators and teachers, and eventually a few students, formed to an-alyze the way in which time was used during the high school day and investigate more efficient ways to use that time.

Until September 2012, the schedule at Cherry Hill high schools had consisted of 8 periods, which met for 44 minutes each, every day in the same order, with a 6-minute homeroom at the beginning of the day, and 4 minutes’ passing time between classes. Lunch was optional, and filled a

44-minute daily time block in the same way that any other class did. Lab scienc-es met an extra period once every five school days, with students labbing out of a lunch period, study hall, or elective class that met di-rectly before or after their regular science period.

Then, beginning in 2010, teams of a d m i n -i s t r a t o r s and teach-ers visited various high schools with schedules different from the one in place at East. The national school sched-uling consultant Michael Rettig was also hired.

Through these visits, Reusche said, the teams

noticed the length of the day at other schools. They realized that Cherry Hill had the shortest day of all schools across New Jersey.

“Then we began those dis-cussions [about] what ...oth-er schools [were] able to do with their schedules that we didn’t think we could do, realizing that some of them

had much more time,” said Re-usche.

She said that the addition of

thirty minutes to the school day was not a direct re-sult of or a response to the block scheduling which was implemented the year be-fore. Though both changes originated around the same time, as a result of the same

analysis and site visits, the timing of the implementa-tion, she said, was merely due to the timing needed to get the extra 30 minutes into the teachers’ contract.

“Adding time onto that day cannot be a decision that Administration makes alone,” said Reusche, cit-ing the labor negotiations that had to take place be-tween the school district and CHEA – Cherry Hill Education Association – the teachers’ union.

Any change that would affect employees’ work-ing conditions – such as the hours that they work – needs to be implemented via a change in the teach-ers’ contract.

CHEA representatives

negotiate on behalf of Dis-trict employees, ensuring that their needs are ad-dressed, without requiring each employee to be direct-ly involved in the process. Among East staff, for ex-ample, there are 10 union representatives, through-out different departments, who, during the contract ne-gotiation process, met with Reusche and a committee of school board members, reported back to the union members they represent, and gathered union mem-bers’ opinions on the mat-ters being negotiated.

When a contract agree-ment was reached, the planned change in school start time was disclosed to the public.

NO89%

YES11%

Do y

ou feel that increasing class time

e

nh

ances your academic performance

an

d improves your education?

Students respond...

“Adding time onto the day cannot be a decision that Administration makes alone.” -Dr. Reusche

June 2014 EASTSIDE Page 4

SPECIAL

Agree? Disagree? Eastside welcomes comments on on this Sleep and School Start Time Special.

CLICK HERE to submit a comment. Please note that all comments will be moderated prior to publication.

CLICK HERE to view readers’ comments.

Links to articles and sources

“Adding an entire extra half hour to the school day only added a few extra minutes in each class. Not enough time to have any significant improvement to educa-tion. It has, however, decreased the amount of time for sleep and leaves students no time for breakfast. Sleep deprivation and not eating breakfast has a much larger nega-tive impact on educa-tion that an extra few minutes in each class. Classes later in the day also suffer from student

burnout.”Ryan Boyle (‘15)

“I don’t get enough sleep so I become phys-ically, emotionally and

mentally tired.”Anonynmous (‘16)

“I feel like 30 more min-utes in school was add-ed for no reason. And we really only have 5 or 6 minutes extra in class which we use to get ready for our next

class.”Anonymous (‘17)

“I don’t see any differ-ence in how much or how well I’m learn-ing with the extra half hour. It is only more stressful because we are hard-working stu-dents tiring ourselves out and not getting

enough sleep.”Rachel Palitto (‘16)

“Changing the start time only makes me wake up earlier... it’s not like I have any time

to go to bed earlier.”Rachel Vetesi (‘14)

“Although I have trou-ble waking up, it is not a result of the early 7:30 start time. I had the same amount of dif-ficulty when the start time was 8:00. Also, I stay up until 11:30 pm or 12 am by choice, not as a consequence of

schoolwork.”Aaron Goldberg (‘14)

“... A lot of my friends often sleep less than 2 hours or [get] no sleep at all. How do teachers expect us to concentrate when we are running

on no sleep?” Federica Sul (‘17)

“The extra half hour makes a big difference. It’s the little things that go a long way. Lack of sleep makes students

miserable.”Alexa Beatty (‘16)

“I find it hard to con-centrate sometimes in class due to tiredness, especially in the morn-

ing.”Dylan Clark (‘16)

“The earlier school start time has made school way less enjoyable and going to school is a hassle every single day. We should go back to the old schedule, before block scheduling, and

start at 8 a.m.”Anonymous (‘15)

“Maybe East students would be more attrac-tive if we got more

sleep.”Tyler Gamble (‘14)

“Sleep is really im-portant and teenagers

need the most of it.”Jess Levine (‘16)

“The early start time has made it more diffi-cult to take advantage of early morning re-

views.” Temuulen Gansukh

(‘14)

“The extra half hour is unnecessary.”

Emma Myer (‘17)

“Sleep deprivation is increasing and worsen-ing, especially with the

earlier start time.” Anonymous (‘15)

“There are more cons than pros.”

Jacob Ropka (‘17)

“I would [write a com-ment], but I’m too

tired.”Anonymous (‘15)

70 percent of students would prefer an 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. school

day over 7:30 to 2:30.

Survey reveals students’ views4.4 percent see the change to 7:30 a.m. school start time as positive. 81.6 percent see it as negative, and 14 percent see it as neither positive nor negative.

Never: 33.1% Once: 24.7%

2-3 times: 23.8% More than 3 times: 16.2%

How many times have you fallen asleep in class during the past 5 school days?

DETRIMENTAL 87.2%

NO EFFECT10.6%

BENEFICIAL2.2%

What do you believe is the effect of the earlier school start time on the health and well-being of East students?

96 percent do not believe that adding an extra

half hour was necessary.

+ 0:30

16.6 percent of students need to be

home at a certain time after school to care for

younger siblings.

Do you believe that the reduction of instruc-tional time that occurred when the rotat-ing block schedule was implemented had a

detrimental impact on your education? YES: 15.6 % NO: 24.7%

NO: 89.4%

Do you feel that you get enough sleep?

YES: 10.6%

Balance and School Bus art by Helena Sirken (‘15)/ Eastside Art DirectorSleepy Scholar art by Rachel Pacitti (‘15)/ Eastside Art Director

To view more student quotes, click HERE.

- The New York Times: “To Keep Teenagers Alert, Schools Let Them Sleep In”- SJ Magazine: “Totally too Early!”- SleepandSchoolStartTime.org- University of Minnesota Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement - “Impact of Later High School Start Times on the Health and Academic Performance of High School Students” - NationalSleepFoundation.org - HealthySleep.Med.Harvard.edu: How Awake Are You?