This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Regarding the recent issue of later school start times, there may be another viable option worth considering.
When I was a bit younger and working for the Utah Office of Rehabilitation, I had a problem of getting to work on time at 8:30 every morning. You know, I had to watch the news the night before, and a little bit of Letterman, and it was tough to get out of bed in the morning.
When the Winter Olympics arrived in 2002, the governor made a proclamation that all state employees would work from 6 a.m. until 2 p.m. to better accommodate all the people and traffic getting to and from the venues during regular rush hour times.
Shocking to me at first, but like everyone else during that time, I discovered if I went to bed by 9 p.m., and was up by 4:30 a.m, there was plenty of time to get to work before 6 a.m. And I was never late to work during the Olympics, and it was like cake getting to work on time once the Olympics ended.
So, is there any chance of maintaining the current school times as they are, and encouraging students to go to bed an hour earlier, instead of using that hour to sleep through first period?
Robert Day
Salt Lake City