Health & Fitness
SLEEP Year in Review: 2012
SLEEP reviews 2012, a year of progress toward the goal of providing healthy and safe school start times for all students in Fairfax County Public Schools.
SLEEP volunteers continue to work toward our goal of healthy and safe school start times for students in Fairfax. Read a quick overview of what happened in 2012:
January The new school board members began their 4-year term. During their campaigns, 10 of the 12 said they would vote for "a new FCPS policy to require that high schools start after 8:00 a.m. in the morning", and 8 said they would be willing to "put forth a motion to vote on such a policy."
February School board creates a stop-gap option to provide relief to a small number of students. A student, with his or her parent's permission and ability to get to school without FCPS transportation, may replace a first block class with a dual-enrollment or online class, or a study hall.
March/April School Board votes in favor of a resolution to set a Goal To Start High Schools After 8:00AM, recognizing that sleep is a priority to student health, well-being and performance.
Find out what's happening in Fairfax Stationwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
May/June The resolution also directed FCPS staff to identify successful approaches and practices used in districts that currently start high schools after 8:00 AM. FCPS staff did not complete the assignment and recommended that the school board hire a consultant. Previously, the Transportation Task Force had recommended that FCPS hire a change management consultant.
July An Ad-hoc Committee of the School Board, Patty Reed, Sandy Evans, Ryan McElveen, and Ted Velkoff, created a Scope of Work, which was approved the by entire school board.
September/October SLEEP volunteers disseminated information at Back-to-school events and attended the RealFood4Kids Food Day Event.
Find out what's happening in Fairfax Stationwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
FCPS issued a request for proposals (RFP). The schedule calls for the work to begin in 2013.
November SLEEP joined forces with Start School Later (SSL)-Montgomery County and SSL Anne Arundel County.
December SLEEP leaders participated in the community dialogues about what characteristics we would like to see in the next Superintendent. The school board is still conducting a survey about this.
Miles to go before we sleep . . . In terms of sleep for students, 2012 has been one of forward progress. Stay tuned. Real breakthroughs could come in 2013 as we work with school board members and other stakeholders to resolve challenges raised in previous discussions of later high school start times. Many miles have already been traveled and there is real hope that the current school board will bring healthy schedules to Fairfax students.
