The Palo Alto Educators Association and Palo Alto Unified School District are considering moving the high school start time from 9 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. next school year.
In Superintendent Don Austin’s weekly update on Jan. 9, he said leadership from the PAEA has requested PAUSD high schools to begin 15 minutes earlier.
According to the update, the earlier bell schedule will likely take effect next school year.
“It looks like that can happen without creating unintended consequences,” Austin wrote. “While this is not official yet, I wanted to foreshadow the potential minor adjustment for next year.”
Palo Alto High School Principal Brent Kline said he supports the proposal to begin school earlier.
“It [an earlier start time] is a great thing, and it would be very positive for sports and other after-school activities,” Kline said. “I’m also in favor of an 8:30 start time.”
Not everyone is on board with the shift, however. Senior Kailia Leming said she is hoping instead for a start time after 9 a.m. because her student-athlete responsibilities can keep her up late at night.
“I disagree with that [an earlier start-time], because I do most of my sleeping in the morning,” Leming said. “I just tend to be up later at night, doing homework and sports. If school started earlier, I’d be getting less sleep, but if school started later, I’d be getting more sleep, so we should make school start later.”
Palo Alto High School Physical Education teacher and retired boys basketball coach Peter Diepenbrock said Paly’s later start and end time is problematic, as school sports games conflict with later Physical Education periods.
“Because it gets dark at 5 p.m., they [PAUSD schools] have to start athletic contests at the same time,” Diepenbrock said. “They can’t move those [sports games] later, so for Physical Education, we wouldn’t have our facilities for seventh period or fourth period.”
According to Diepenbrock, the 9 a.m. start time was unpopular among Paly staff.
“I could not find one person who was in favor of the 9 a.m. start,” Diepenbrock said. “The 15 minutes earlier [start time] is great, but law allows us to start at 8:30 so it really doesn’t make any sense why we don’t.”
