Troy High School introduced late-start days at the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year. On late start days, which are typically on the first Wednesday of every month, school starts at 8:50 instead of 7:20 in the morning. The purpose of late start days is for teachers to use the extra hour in the morning to get work done. However, many students and staff have repeatedly shown a large disinterest in late start days, and a sizeable majority are in favor of bringing back half days instead.

When English teacher, Emily Rusk, was asked whether the extra time was beneficial, she replied, “What that hour is supposed to be used for is for us to get caught up with work, do grading and work together with coworkers where when we do that stuff on a half day, I feel like I have a lot more time to do it.”

The intention of the extra hour and a half sounds beneficial ideally. However, realistically, it just is not. Teachers feel a large pressure to get all work done in that short hour in the morning before students come in, causing them stress in the early hours of the morning. 

Rusk was also asked if she gets more sleep with late start days, where she replied, “No! I still feel like I need to get to school early because I feel that I need to prepare for the work that I am about to do during that hour that we have. Also, knowing that we only have an hour, sometimes I’ll get here early to get started on it because I know I’ll run out of time when first hour starts.”

Although teachers may not be getting the proper sleep intended by late start days, students do manage to sleep more. The extra hour in the morning allows students to sleep a little more which gives them a little more energy and motivation to go on with their school day despite their dislike of late start days.

Not only are teachers in disapproval of late start days, but also students. Senior Amelia Rackers was asked if she feels more productive during late start days, where she said, “Absolutely not.” She was also asked if she believes late start days are a better alternative to half days, where she answered, “No because half days are way better.”

Both students and teachers are against late start days, and feel they are pointless. This begs the question, why not remove late start days and keep only half days instead?

The school year calendar is pre-decided before the school year begins. This makes it especially hard to later change it at the request of students and teachers. After each year, there is a vote on whether or not to keep late start days and unfortunately, the vote has been yes to keep late start days.