We reached 1500 signatures, but the work does not stop here. Please continue to share this petition and spread the word. If you have any comments/questions/concerns or arguments, I will be happy to discuss them with you. Email: parkmatthewj@gmail.com. When leaving a reason for your signature, please continue to share your personal experiences and stories. This is how we get our voices heard. Listed below are some statements addressing the concerns. Clarification: The "solutions" section was written based off of case studies and examples of ways that other school districts around the country have solved the sleeping issue. It is in no way to say that the Anchorage School District should use those same strategies; they are models of where later start times have worked and worth looking at. "That just means school will end later." Yes, it likely means that school will end later. But it also means that during the school day, students are going to be more alert, concentrated, and able to process information. It ultimately comes down to a matter of student health and education. Are we going to set them up for success and take advantage of their potential? Or would we rather sacrifice their needed sleep for the sake of convenience? This is in their best interest. The extreme solution would be to institute block schedules across all high schools and keep the school ending time at 2:00 PM. Unfortunately, this would mean less overall time spent learning and being educated, but it would also mean students getting enough rest and teachers being able to cover more curriculum at one time. "This is just going to cause a series of transportation issues" With any adjustment or drastic change follows a number of issues and problems. This is certainly no exception. The reason that district-wide transportation issues have not been thoroughly addressed in the petition is due to the limited information regarding the logistics behind it all. What can be said at the moment is that districts around the nation have found low-cost, effective solutions. This petition serves as the first step to addressing the problem. Once we get our voices heard, then the concerns regarding transportation issues can be discussed and solutions can be created. Let's not forget the fact that a lack of sleep in teenagers is a public health concern and should be put before all else. "Students should just go to bed earlier" : Sleep research shows that students are not able to simply sleep earlier and feel awake enough to learn the next morning. This was previously addressed in the petition and is supported by an overwhelming amount of studies and research (links can be found on the petition page).