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SFUSD begins study of later high‑school start times; staff flags transport, athletics and cost trade‑offs
Summary
SFUSD staff presented initial findings on later high‑school start times: research suggests adolescent sleep needs favor later starts, but local costs (transportation fleet addition estimates, athletic scheduling, custodial contracts) and equity questions mean the board recommended extended planning and broad stakeholder engagement before any change.
The San Francisco Unified School District board opened a policy review June 22 on whether high‑school start times should be pushed later to align with adolescent sleep patterns.
Staff convened a task force May–June 2010 that reviewed sleep research, national case studies (Minnesota, Kentucky) and local operational constraints. The staff report noted that teenagers on average need roughly 8½–9¼ hours of sleep and that later starts have been linked in some districts to improved attendance and reduced teen crash rates. However, staff cautioned that urban districts can show mixed behavioral results and that San Francisco faces logistical constraints: Muni service reductions, rental‑facility schedules for athletics, custodial collective‑bargaining terms that create overtime costs, and the special‑education transportation fleet already operating at peak capacity.
Transportation staff estimated that shifting high‑school start times to 09:00 without other systemic changes would require adding bus service for high‑school special‑education trips — a change with an estimated capital/operational implication (staff estimate cited ~$5.9M for fleet adjustments specific to the proposal). Staff recommended designating 2010–11 as a planning year, expanding the task force to include parents, students, athletics and public‑safety stakeholders, and making decisions by November 2010 if changes were to be reflected in upcoming enrollment materials.
SFPD representatives voiced safety concerns about late‑afternoon hours (a spike in crimes between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.), and many commissioners emphasized the need for pilots, nuanced grade‑level solutions (for example, staggering start times by grade) and careful alignment with student assignment and transportation redesign efforts.
