Missoula high schools may change to a later start time for fall of 2017, according to the Missoula County Public Schools, County Superintendent Mark Thane.

No specific time has been decided yet, but the committee appears to be considering pushing start time later by 20-40 minutes.

In late 2016 the Missoula County Public Schools committee began meeting to address two issues that are well known to many teenagers throughout the MCPS district and high schools: sleep deprivation and school start time.

The committee of 24 began meeting to discuss the possibility of changing the time. People from all over MCPS and a few outside, they began discussing the change.

On the committee is the MCPS superintendent, Thane. Thane informed us that the committee was “prompted by high school start times”. When asked about the committee Thane said that they are reviewing information on teenage sleep schedules, which suggest teenagers are able to function later on in the day.

However this is not the first time this issue has come up in committee meetings. Years back the committee had met to discuss the issue but could not advance due to too many problems with changing the schedule. But when Jennie Dixon who had started a chapter of School Start Later Program, had come to the board meeting and discussed with them the possibility, the idea was brought out again. Thane, Dixon, and the rest of the school board are working to decide whether it is possible to change the sleep schedule but they say there is a few problems.

The first is bus schedules and funding. Thane said they had to look at the “pros and cons” of changing and said that the bus scheduling and funding could be a problem.

Another factor is teenage activities such as sports, jobs, and other activities that would most likely be affected by this change. Due to this they have considered different schedules not just for start times but for classes and activities as well as the time school gets out.

The school board is covering as many angles as possible as they believe that a school change could benefit the students in academic, behavior, and sleep related health. The school board will review the pros and cons of the change and will take into account the interest of school students. The board will most likely meet in February to give its consensus on the matter to the schools.