Starting from the 2019/20 school year, St. Paul High Schools are trying something different... and people couldn't be more upset about it.

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If you had asked me 17-20 years ago if I'd like to get an extra hour of sleep every day before coming to class, I would have jumped up and down in approval.

Now that I'm older and with my own kid, I'm thinking the exact opposite because this could be quite the headache for some parents.

According to FOX 9, the St. Paul Public School Board of Education voted to change school start times for most secondary and elementary schools, beginning in the 2019-2020 school year.

The changes the board made are:

  • High school students in St. Paul will get an extra hour, because the city's school board on Tuesday approved a proposal to push back the start of class times from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.
  • Most elementary schools that currently start at 8:30 a.m. will move to 7:30 a.m.
    Most 9:30 a.m. elementary school will stay the same.

Quite the life-change isn't it?

It follows discussion of national and local research that has found teenagers benefit emotionally and academically when they get more sleep.

Look, if school started later when I was in high school I'd just be staying up even later and still not getting enough sleep for class the next day. It's not preparing them for what's to come in college and when they finally get a job.

Geez, I'm sounding more and more like a dad every day... what's happening to me?!

Anyways, the Pioneer Press reports around half of people who responded to a school district survey objected to it, citing concerns about child care, early-morning school bus safety, and athletics scheduling... just to name a few.

If this eventually proves a successful experiment up there, do you think Rochester could eventually adopt a similar change?

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