Lake Washington School District is issuing a new Start Time Plan that would push high school start times to 8:30AM or 8:50AM. While the Start Times Committee did ask for community input, we, student, parents, and teachers of the LWSD community still feel like our voices are not being heard and accounted for.

Here are reasons why students want to keep the 8AM start time:

1. Students in extracurricular activities and sports will have to choose between participating in their passions or picking up their siblings from school. Option 2 would have high schools releasing 1 hour and 10 minutes at minimum after Elementary Schools.
2. Students with after school jobs will not be able to continue working.
   
   
3. Students in AP and other rigorous classes will have less time to work
   with the same amount of work assigned, which competes with family time, personal time, and sleeping time.
   
   
4.  While there is evidence pointing towards the benefits of a later start, there is no study proving that students will use the later start to sleep more. Many students have said that they will just "stay up an hour later".
   
   
5. Students in Running Start, WANIC, and other similar programs will not be able to continue their current schedule, as colleges do not shift with the LWSD Start Times Committee.
6. Students who continue in sports will have to miss class time to participate in sports whose venue is not on campus, even more than they already do.

Here are reasons why parents want to keep the 8AM start time:

1. Parents rely on their High School-aged students to pick up their kids from school.
   
   
2. Parents' work schedule revolves around their student's school start time. If the start time changes, that could shift many household dynamics.
3. Parents already struggle to get their Elementary School-aged students out of bed. Moving their start time earlier would only increase this struggle, especially during the developmental period of Elementary School.

Here are reasons why teachers want to keep the 8AM start time:

1. Teachers' commute will increase 20-30 minutes due to the start time being closer to rush hour traffic.
   
   
2. Teachers will have to spend thousands of dollars on before/after school care.
3. Teachers will not be as willing to supervise after school activities because of the late start time.
   
   
4. Teachers will be unwilling to chaperone for school dances and events, which are important to students and the community.

The Start Time Committee has released this statement in their Q and A from January 3rd, 4th, and 5th:

"A decision will come likely in February after the superintendent is able to process both the committee recommendation and stakeholder feedback and consult with the board of directors."

As a school district with a promise to promote SEL (Social Emotional Learning), they need to consider how this decision will affect their community.  Student, parent, and faculty opinions are not being heard. We as a community need to come together to make our voices heard by the Committee. Please sign today to oppose this decision!

More information about the plan can be found here.

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