Grand Prairie ISD Considering Plan To Give High School Students More Sleep

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - Grand Prairie ISD says high school students need more sleep, but plans to change the time they arrive is causing some upset parents to lose sleep.

But Tuesday evening, the school board decided to delay a vote on significant changes to the time students at middle and high schools arrive and leave.

The board and superintendent want to take more time to study whether more sleep produces better grades for high school students.

CBS 11 spoke to a number of parents who had planned to be at the school board meeting even though Grand Prairie ISD said the chance to sound off on it was at the last meeting.

There are parents on both sides of this debate over whether middle schoolers should come in more than an hour earlier and high schoolers more than an hour later.

Mike Mills has a daughter who will attend middle school next year and a son who will be in high school.

The proposed start time for middle schools would change from 8:50 a.m. to 7:25 a.m. while the high school students would arrive at 8:45 a.m. instead of 7:35 a.m.

The school district says it studied 40 similar districts and found those times produce better performing students.

It also found that high school students achieve more with more sleep.

But a lot of parents believe it's an unnecessary inconvenience.

"It's just a huge change and a big inconvenience for everybody including the students," said parent Paulina Flores.

"The time change, yeah I guess it changes things a little because then you have to adjust drop off and pick up times," said parent Mike Mills.

The school board needs to make a decision on this soon because it will have to rearrange bus routes before the next school year starts.