School Start Time: Too Early or Just Right?

Arrowhead High School’s start time is 7:20 AM at South Campus, and 7:30 AM at North Campus. This means that Freshman and Sophomores have to be in class before 7:20, in order to not receive a tardy. Juniors and Seniors graders need to be in their classrooms before 7:30 AM in order to be on time.

According to the Arrowhead High School Student and Parent Information guide, “Each teacher will have an established classroom tardy policy. While there may be slight variation among teachers, the expectation is for them to follow the established classroom policy. A tardy is considered less than 20 minutes late, whereas, more than 20 minutes late will be treated as an absence.”

According to the school policy, on the first, second, and third offense, students will receive a consequence according to the teacher’s plan. On the fourth offense or more, students can receive an “office detention, Saturday detention, referral to School Resource Officer, referral to School Counseling Office, loss of parking permit, citation for loitering or any combination of.”

“I can’t drive [and] the bus doesn’t come to my house, so I’m completely reliant on my mom to be ready in the morning, and if she isn’t, then I’m late,” Gabbi Pancheri, sophomore at Arrowhead, who lives in Dousman, says. “I don’t appreciate having to wake up at 5:30 every morning, shower, get ready, drive 30 minutes to school, just to maybe get to school on time.”

Pancheri isn’t the only South Campus student who is unhappy with the school start time of 7:20. Max Quadracci, a sophomore at Arrowhead says, “I hate it.”

According to  https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-topics/teens-and-sleep, teens need an average of eight to ten hours of sleep each night to funtion properly the next morning. With this being said, 56% of the U.S. takes 11 to 30 minutes to get ready in the morning, and based on a survey of 15 arrowhead students, the average time it takes to drive to school in the morning is 12 minutes. This would indicate a wake up time of 6:45 AM (roughly) for the average student. To remain in the eight to ten hours of sleep boundaries, students must go to sleep around 9:45 PM.

Broadway Company, held at North Campus, in preparing for shows, holds students from 3 to 9 PM single night, which means after returning home, students have 45 minutes to be sound asleep.

“I don’t think it’s fair at all,” says Tori Skaggs, a member of Broadway Company.

According to the sleepfoundation.org, not getting enough sleep can affect your memory, your ability to learn, and your ability to concentrate.

“I have my hardest class first hour, and I’m always, like, tired when I go to [the class],” says Smith.

Students want to do well, but find it difficult to keep up with their responsibilities and homework, say they feel frequently frustrated. Sleep causes a lot of other problems too like acne. Studies have shown that a little amount of sleep increases the amount of acne for teens. It also contributes to teens sleep disorders such as insomnia, narcolepsy, restless legs syndrome or sleep apnea.

And if you’re worried about gaining weight, sleep could attribute to weight gain. Ellie Artone said, “We need more sleep if we are going to be able to do what we are told to do and do it effectively.”