GECDSB student trustee Liam Bannon speaks at the board meeting on October 17, 2017. Photo by Mark Brown/Blackburn News.GECDSB student trustee Liam Bannon speaks at the board meeting on October 17, 2017. Photo by Mark Brown/Blackburn News.
Windsor

School Board To Receive Report On Later Bell Times

Some secondary school students in Windsor and Essex County may get to sleep in a little longer before class, starting next school year.

The Greater Essex County District School Board voted Tuesday night to request a report outlining the benefits and disadvantages of later start times for its secondary schools.

If the school board should implement the idea, it would be a pilot project in the secondary schools for the 2018-2019 school year.

Board trustee Connie Buckler first introduced the motion after hearing about the potential benefits of starting school later at some school boards across Ontario. She says it falls into her own mandate on raising student welfare and student academic performance.

"When I saw this come up that a later bell time meant some kids could be more successful, and as you watch your dropout rate, and you watch kids who are not finishing school or have a great deal of anxiety, you wonder if a later start time might help them," says Buckler, who represents Lakeshore and Tecumseh on the board.

Benefits of a later start time include not having to set out early to catch a bus and having more daylight in a student's morning, resulting in alertness and better focus.

However, a late bell time means some other aspects of student life would have to come later as well, as pointed out by board student trustee Liam Bannon. He believes student athletics and extra-curricular activities may suffer, as they would need to be pushed back.

"School is not just school," says Bannon, a Grade 12 student at Kennedy Collegiate Institute in Windsor. "School is a way of forming students that will benefit later in life."

Other board trustees, including Dave Taves and Gale Simko-Hatfield, say they needed more information before agreeing to a pilot program for later start times, resulting in the request of a report.

The report is expected to be ready by the January 2018 board meeting.

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