Arlington School Board Develops New Strategic Plan

New school board member Polly Walton recently discussed school start times with me. Ms. Walton is committed to making healthy hours part of the district's 2016-2020 Strategic Plan. Superintendent Cavazos, has stated he will not move forward with plans to delay high school start times, until he has support of the majority of local groups and community stakeholders. Research has shown that the key factor for school districts to successfully change to later school start times is a superintendent willing to acknowledge the research and commit to educating the community on the need to change! After three years of providing the latest research to the school board and administration it has become clear that a statement by the SSL executive director, Terra Snider, rings true. Decades of adolescent sleep research is not enough to convince a school board to do right by our children. Even gathering the support of every school board member, which we have, is not enough. We must gather support by influential local community groups such as LULAC, NAACP, teacher groups, etc. The district will hold community meetings next week to gather input on the framework of the new 2016-2020 Strategic Plan. Community leaders have been invited. It is critical for Start School Later supporters to attend one of these meetings. All meetings will be at the district's PDC, across from the mall, on October 6 & 7. Each session will run two hours. The times for both days are 11:30 am, 4:00 pm, or 6:30 pm. Attendees will complete a short questionnaire at the beginning followed by a district presentation and a round table discussion. Please try to attend one of these stakeholder sessions. If your time is limited, at least go and complete the questionnaire stating on the form that high school should start later as recommended by the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics! Educating Arlington community groups will be the chapter's priority in the future. If you have connections to local organizations that can provide influence and support, please let me know so we can work together to develop ways to educate them on the need for healthy school hours for our children.