By Sarah Hagerty
Sleep insufficiency begins very early—you should pardon the pun. The 7:17 a.m. start time for Anne Arundel County public high schools has raised the ire of parents for years. Only now, with so much national attention focused on the topic, has the school system decided to consider the options. A task force has been formed to debate the viability of four options:
Option A: High schools start classes at 8:30 a.m. and middle schools and elementary schools would all shift appropriately. This option has a price tag of $8.9 million, mainly to buy new buses.
Option B: High schools would start at 9:15 a.m. with lots of jockeying of times for elementary and middle schools as well. This would ring up a $9.4 million tab.
Option C: Everyone starts a half hour later. This is sounds like a bargain at only $600,000.
Option D: Is a complicated variation on Option C, but with a cost of $2.1 million.
Which option to choose and deciding where the money will come from are some of the issues under consideration by the task force. To those families who get up at 5:30 a.m. and leave the house in the pitch dark, they know the resolution they are seeking. We’ll be keeping an eye on the situation.
