Late Start Mondays No More?

With the new school year starting, students were surprised to learn that there are no longer going to be late start Mondays. During the second semester last year late start Mondays were introduced as a form to allow teachers to have more planning time. Not only did it help teachers, it allowed students to wake up later and have more rest to be prepared for the day.

Due to Covid last year, several teachers and students were out. With this, many teachers were giving up their planning time to substitute for teachers and catch students up if they had Covid. 

“So I really miss late start Mondays because I think Mondays are always just hard in general to get going after the weekend and it was nice to be able to come closer to time and not have to worry about being late or having students right away,” said english teacher Ms. Gaisor.

With late start Mondays, students had a chance to wake up later and come to school not so in a rush. This allowed students to get more sleep and a full night of rest. It also benefited teachers in having time to go to school a little later and have that time to catch up for the day.

“I miss them because I used to be able to wake up at 7:30 everyday and get here at 8:30 and over the summer I was only sleeping six hours. I wanted more sleep over the course of the year, but not anymore. I’m here at 7:30 everyday,” said Junior Kevin Yau.

Before late start Mondays were a thing, about 10 years ago Rangeview had late start Wednesdays that were in schools due to just wanting to have time to rest and plan. Late start days should be added permanently, without reasoning to benefit everyone. 

Late start Mondays benefited everyone, although Covid is not a main concern for schools anymore, APS should add them again as a way to relieve the stress of teachers and to allow students to have rest.

Last year, Cherry Creek School district changed the starting time so it starts one hour later rather than the original time. With this new schedule students are getting more sleep during the night. So why doesn’t APS also do this?

According to the CDC, students should sleep eight to ten hours a day. Without this sleep it can cause kids to be overweight, perform poorly in school, and will not engage in physical activity. 

Late start days or just an overall change in the school start time would be a change for several, and although school might go an hour into the day, having the extra sleep will help in the long run. Students will have more energy to perform in school and after school activities.