This week, Barrow County Board of Education met and voted on changing the start times for elementary, middle and high schools.  In a 5-4 decision, the board decided to keep their current start time schedule.

This decision was highly debated in last week’s work session.  Currently high schools in Barrow County start at 7:30 a.m. which some say is too early.  Proponents of the change cited several reasons, such as proven scientific research that middle and high school students perform better with more sleep, .

But for many on the board it came down to a financial issue.  District 3 representative, Connie Wehunt, stated in their discussion, “When we start talking about this much money–buying new buses, hiring new employees…there are other needs in our school system that are greater.  I have a problem with spending this much money to make it easier on kids to get up at a later hour, and even though the data is there we have been using this old time and have been successful.”

-Brett Homer