Petition and Open Letter to the Red Hook Central School District Community
Petition and Open Letter to the Red Hook Central School District Community
The Issue
I am writing to urge the Red Hook Central School District to update its start times for Linden Avenue Middle and Red Hook High Schools. If you believe, as we do, that school start times that are consistent with the sleep needs of our children as it relates to their emotional and physical health is an important issue to be taken up by the district, please add your signature.
Why Change School Start Times?
Red Hook Central School District has its start times backwards. Mill Road Elementary begins at 9:00 a.m. Linden Avenue Middle School and Red Hook High School begin about one hour and twenty minutes before that, at 7:40 a.m. and 7:42 a.m., respectively. This schedule runs entirely counter to decades of peer-reviewed scientific research that repeatedly shows younger children naturally wake earlier than adolescents and teens, and that the early start times damage adolescents and teens in terms of physical and intellectual performance and emotional and social health. Furthermore, multiple school districts in the Hudson Valley have already adjusted their school start times as per recommendations from experts.
…research indicates that the average teenager in today’s society has difficulty falling asleep before 11:00 pm and is best suited to wake at 8:00 am or later
- American Academy of Pediatrics (1)
…the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) is calling on communities, school boards, and educational institutions to implement start times of 8:30 a.m. or later for middle schools and high schools to ensure that every student arrives at school healthy, awake, alert, and ready to learn.
-The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2)
A Brief Review of the Evidence
Countless studies performed over the past three decades have indicated that adolescents and teens experience changes in circadian rhythms that result in falling asleep later in the evening and waking later in the morning. Publications by Owens et. al., (3) Minges, et. al., (4) and Paksarian, et. al. (5) all conclude that there are measurable benefits from later school start times and, critically, serious drawbacks to early morning start times.
A study done in Hong Kong that measured the results of a even a small change in start times – just fifteen minutes later – showed significant improvement in student mental function and, importantly, mood and social behaviors. (6)
The anthropologist Mathew Wolf-Meyer, author of The Slumbering Masses: Sleep, Medicine, And Modern American Life has written extensively on sleep issues. He argues that blaming technology and disorders like ADHD and its medications is akin to picking low hanging fruit; that institutional schedules like school start times are assumed to be natural phenomena that ought not be scrutinized. Yet, Wolf-Meyer goes, on, technology and pathology are red herrings and that real and positive change lies in making institutions serve our children’s social and emotional needs instead of forcing them to adapt, against their biology, to unnaturally early schedules.
Local Perspectives
I am a social scientist with a PhD in the field of Science and Technology Studies. My work focuses on ways in which the pharmacology of psychoactive drugs has impacted biomedical science and scientific research. Part of my studies involve the ways in which institutions impact our society. Over the past decade, as a parent of two children who went or are currently in the school system, I can attest to having observed the negative impact of the early start times in both the middle and high schools. Not only my children, but their peers as well, have demonstrated obvious and significant declines in overall mental health shortly after beginning attendance at the middle school. This amounts to at least a dozen and perhaps more children that I have had opportunity to directly observe. I have also spoken to other parents who have related similar experiences.
My wife and I have raised concerns about start times before. Our attempts were rebuffed with claims that the bus schedules were somehow more important than our children’s mental health; that the later schedules of the elementary school buses could not be combined with the upper grade schools because parents were concerned that older children would assault or molest the younger ones. This is not only unfounded, but smacks of fear mongering in the interests of avoiding an investment in change. Other arguments that oppose a change in start times cite problems for working parents who have their own early start times. I would counter by suggesting that our district school buildings are safe spaces, and if students need to arrive early to accommodate their parents’ schedules, they’d have good precedent among all the other districts that open, but do not start the academic day, early enough to host such students. Finally, we have heard responses regarding sports schedules at the end of the day. Yet, multiple school districts in our region have already changed their schedules to meet the biological and emotional needs of the older grades without harm done to their sporting programs. Claims against the idea of changing start times of the middle and high schools thus appear to lack any substantial evidence and, when weighed against the physical and mental health of our children, cannot be taken seriously.
Action to Be Taken
This letter represents our initial attempt to convince the Red Hook Central School District to formally change the start times of both Linden Avenue Middle and Red Hook High School to a later time that meets the needs of its students. Our next steps are as follows.
1. We will gather signatures of district parents in support of this change.
2. We will formally propose the matter as an issue for the Board of Education to take up, and will encourage the Board either act or put the matter to a district-wide vote.
3. If the Board rebuffs this attempt, we shall escalate by appealing to the New York State Commissioner of Education, which provides for grievances against school districts when they fail to act in a manner consistent with the needs and desires of the community they purportedly represent.
Conclusion
In closing, I believe it is self-evident that the parents of the Red Hook Central School District care deeply about the social, emotional, and academic well-being of our children. The biomedical evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of making school start times later to accommodate the biological needs of students. The shared lived reality of too-early start times is evident based on the observations and anecdotes of peers and parents. It is time for the Red Hook Central School District to catch up with the experts and other districts and adjust school start times for the sakes of our children.
Craig Rothstein, PhD
Red Hook, New York
References
2. https://aasm.org/advocacy/initiatives/school-start-times/
3. Minges, Karl E., and Nancy S. Redeker. "Delayed school start times and adolescent sleep: a systematic review of the experimental evidence." Sleep medicine reviews 28 (2016): 86-95.
4. Minges, Karl E., and Nancy S. Redeker. "Delayed school start times and adolescent sleep: a systematic review of the experimental evidence." Sleep medicine reviews 28 (2016): 86-95.
5. Paksarian, Diana, Kara E. Rudolph, Jian-Ping He, and Kathleen R. Merikangas. "School start time and adolescent sleep patterns: results from the US national comorbidity survey—adolescent supplement." American journal of public health 105, no. 7 (2015): 1351-1357.
6. Chan, Ngan Yin, Jihui Zhang, Mandy Wai Man Yu, Siu Ping Lam, Shirley Xin Li, Alice Pik Shan Kong, Albert Martin Li, and Yun Kwok Wing. "Impact of a modest delay in school start time in Hong Kong school adolescents." Sleep Medicine 30 (2017): 164-170.
7. Wolf-Meyer, Matthew J. The slumbering masses: Sleep, medicine, and modern American life. U of Minnesota Press, 2012.
53
The Issue
I am writing to urge the Red Hook Central School District to update its start times for Linden Avenue Middle and Red Hook High Schools. If you believe, as we do, that school start times that are consistent with the sleep needs of our children as it relates to their emotional and physical health is an important issue to be taken up by the district, please add your signature.
Why Change School Start Times?
Red Hook Central School District has its start times backwards. Mill Road Elementary begins at 9:00 a.m. Linden Avenue Middle School and Red Hook High School begin about one hour and twenty minutes before that, at 7:40 a.m. and 7:42 a.m., respectively. This schedule runs entirely counter to decades of peer-reviewed scientific research that repeatedly shows younger children naturally wake earlier than adolescents and teens, and that the early start times damage adolescents and teens in terms of physical and intellectual performance and emotional and social health. Furthermore, multiple school districts in the Hudson Valley have already adjusted their school start times as per recommendations from experts.
…research indicates that the average teenager in today’s society has difficulty falling asleep before 11:00 pm and is best suited to wake at 8:00 am or later
- American Academy of Pediatrics (1)
…the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) is calling on communities, school boards, and educational institutions to implement start times of 8:30 a.m. or later for middle schools and high schools to ensure that every student arrives at school healthy, awake, alert, and ready to learn.
-The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2)
A Brief Review of the Evidence
Countless studies performed over the past three decades have indicated that adolescents and teens experience changes in circadian rhythms that result in falling asleep later in the evening and waking later in the morning. Publications by Owens et. al., (3) Minges, et. al., (4) and Paksarian, et. al. (5) all conclude that there are measurable benefits from later school start times and, critically, serious drawbacks to early morning start times.
A study done in Hong Kong that measured the results of a even a small change in start times – just fifteen minutes later – showed significant improvement in student mental function and, importantly, mood and social behaviors. (6)
The anthropologist Mathew Wolf-Meyer, author of The Slumbering Masses: Sleep, Medicine, And Modern American Life has written extensively on sleep issues. He argues that blaming technology and disorders like ADHD and its medications is akin to picking low hanging fruit; that institutional schedules like school start times are assumed to be natural phenomena that ought not be scrutinized. Yet, Wolf-Meyer goes, on, technology and pathology are red herrings and that real and positive change lies in making institutions serve our children’s social and emotional needs instead of forcing them to adapt, against their biology, to unnaturally early schedules.
Local Perspectives
I am a social scientist with a PhD in the field of Science and Technology Studies. My work focuses on ways in which the pharmacology of psychoactive drugs has impacted biomedical science and scientific research. Part of my studies involve the ways in which institutions impact our society. Over the past decade, as a parent of two children who went or are currently in the school system, I can attest to having observed the negative impact of the early start times in both the middle and high schools. Not only my children, but their peers as well, have demonstrated obvious and significant declines in overall mental health shortly after beginning attendance at the middle school. This amounts to at least a dozen and perhaps more children that I have had opportunity to directly observe. I have also spoken to other parents who have related similar experiences.
My wife and I have raised concerns about start times before. Our attempts were rebuffed with claims that the bus schedules were somehow more important than our children’s mental health; that the later schedules of the elementary school buses could not be combined with the upper grade schools because parents were concerned that older children would assault or molest the younger ones. This is not only unfounded, but smacks of fear mongering in the interests of avoiding an investment in change. Other arguments that oppose a change in start times cite problems for working parents who have their own early start times. I would counter by suggesting that our district school buildings are safe spaces, and if students need to arrive early to accommodate their parents’ schedules, they’d have good precedent among all the other districts that open, but do not start the academic day, early enough to host such students. Finally, we have heard responses regarding sports schedules at the end of the day. Yet, multiple school districts in our region have already changed their schedules to meet the biological and emotional needs of the older grades without harm done to their sporting programs. Claims against the idea of changing start times of the middle and high schools thus appear to lack any substantial evidence and, when weighed against the physical and mental health of our children, cannot be taken seriously.
Action to Be Taken
This letter represents our initial attempt to convince the Red Hook Central School District to formally change the start times of both Linden Avenue Middle and Red Hook High School to a later time that meets the needs of its students. Our next steps are as follows.
1. We will gather signatures of district parents in support of this change.
2. We will formally propose the matter as an issue for the Board of Education to take up, and will encourage the Board either act or put the matter to a district-wide vote.
3. If the Board rebuffs this attempt, we shall escalate by appealing to the New York State Commissioner of Education, which provides for grievances against school districts when they fail to act in a manner consistent with the needs and desires of the community they purportedly represent.
Conclusion
In closing, I believe it is self-evident that the parents of the Red Hook Central School District care deeply about the social, emotional, and academic well-being of our children. The biomedical evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of making school start times later to accommodate the biological needs of students. The shared lived reality of too-early start times is evident based on the observations and anecdotes of peers and parents. It is time for the Red Hook Central School District to catch up with the experts and other districts and adjust school start times for the sakes of our children.
Craig Rothstein, PhD
Red Hook, New York
References
2. https://aasm.org/advocacy/initiatives/school-start-times/
3. Minges, Karl E., and Nancy S. Redeker. "Delayed school start times and adolescent sleep: a systematic review of the experimental evidence." Sleep medicine reviews 28 (2016): 86-95.
4. Minges, Karl E., and Nancy S. Redeker. "Delayed school start times and adolescent sleep: a systematic review of the experimental evidence." Sleep medicine reviews 28 (2016): 86-95.
5. Paksarian, Diana, Kara E. Rudolph, Jian-Ping He, and Kathleen R. Merikangas. "School start time and adolescent sleep patterns: results from the US national comorbidity survey—adolescent supplement." American journal of public health 105, no. 7 (2015): 1351-1357.
6. Chan, Ngan Yin, Jihui Zhang, Mandy Wai Man Yu, Siu Ping Lam, Shirley Xin Li, Alice Pik Shan Kong, Albert Martin Li, and Yun Kwok Wing. "Impact of a modest delay in school start time in Hong Kong school adolescents." Sleep Medicine 30 (2017): 164-170.
7. Wolf-Meyer, Matthew J. The slumbering masses: Sleep, medicine, and modern American life. U of Minnesota Press, 2012.
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Petition created on June 16, 2026