Recently, the Naugatuck Board of Education created a committee to make a decision on whether to keep the school start time the same or change it. Currently the school start day for the high school in Naugatuck is 7:30 and the day ends at 2:00 p.m.

A public forum was hosted by the committee on November 2nd at 6:30 pm in the Davis Auditorium at Naugatuck High school. The purpose of the forum was to provide all interested community members including parents, students, teachers, administrators and anyone involved in the community to hear the proposal and comment on it.

In 2014, American Academy of Pediatrics said middle and high schools should start no earlier than 8:30am to better sync with students changing sleep schedules. Further in their study, they said that teenagers brains do not even start until 10 a.m. Studies say that 87% of teenage students get fewer than 8 hours of sleep. Sleep deprivation has been proven to be a huge issue among high school and middle school students.

At 10 a.m. in Naugatuck high school, students are in period 4. Does this mean that students are unfocused and inattentive during their first three classes.

Not enough of sleep affects the ability to learn, listen, concentrate and solve problems. Teenagers who are running on fewer hours of sleep are more likely to gain weight, have acne and be more aggressive. Benefits of a later start time include increased attendance, decreased tardiness, increased total amount of sleep, increased graduation rates, improved grades and test scores, less substance abuse, fewer signs of depression, decreased rates of car accidents, better cognitive functioning, increased attention during class and fewer suspensions and discipline issue.

The forum included a presentation period and then a question and answering period. During the public forum, many students and parents brought up intriguing points. Many of those who attended did use the question and answering period to their advantage and asked several thought provoking questions.

The School Start Time Committee will conduct a survey for parents and students in mid November, in hopes of gathering more of the people who this will be really impacting opinion.

At Naugatuck high school a survey was handed out to thirty people chosen randomly. On of the survey, 22 students said no to wanting the school times changed. 20 students have had credits taken away from being late to school. And 12 out of the 30 students said that if school times were changed the thing that would be most beneficial to them would be being able to have time to get ready in the morning.

At Naugatuck high school, students are only allowed a certain amount of unexcused absences per semester or per year, pending on the class. If a student is taking a semester, or half year course, they are only allowed 8 unexcused absences. The amount of unexcused absences for a full year course is doubled to 16.

Most students lose credit in their first period class and possibly their second period class because of an outrageous amount of reasons. Tardiness is the main reason.

If a student has surpassed the allowed amount of unexcused absences, which is either 8 or 16, they lose the credit.

The attendance office has calculated the amount of unexcused late arrivals for each grade. There is something very astonishing to be found among these results. In grade 9, there are 301 students, grade 10, 291 students, grade 11, 310 students and in grade 12, 320 students. In grade 9, from the first day of school to October 28th, there have been 240 unexcused tardies. In grade 10, 486. In grade 11, 596. And in grade 12, 944 unexcused tardies.

The committee has decided to process all of the comments made by naugatuck citizens and delay their final vote.