Recently, the FUSD board decided to change the timing that the high schools start at. Come fall of 2011, high school students will be starting school at 8 am versus the previous 7:35 timing. The intentions of the school board were to allow students to have more time to sleep, but are they really helping students sleep more, or are they just depriving them of more sleep? A majority of students prefer staying up later at night to finish their homework rather than waking up earlier in the morning. However, if students start school at 8 am, that pushes back dismissal another half hour, causing athletics and other school extracurriculars to start at 3:30 pm versus the previous 3 pm timing. This is where the problem begins. If school-related extracurricular activities are pushed back by a half hour, this restricts the schedule of students who have other extracurriculars after the ones they participate in at school. Here is a scenario to help one understand this issue better: Michelle is an honors and AP student who participates in soccer and basketball at school, but also takes music lessons two days a week in the evening. Now that school is starting at 8 am, she works hard during school hours, after school she gives it her all at basketball/soccer practice. Practice ends at 5:30/6 since the time change and her music lessons start at 6:30. By the time she gets home and grabs a snack it is time to go to her music lessons. She gets back between 7:30 and 8, eats dinner and it is now about 8:30/9. She has homework in all her classes, but no time to rest. By the time she finishes on an average day, she will be ready to sleep by 3, maybe even 4 in the morning. But on days that she has a heavy workload, which is at least once, if not twice a week, she has to pull all nighters. When school used to start at 7:35, she used to have time to rest between her sports practices and music lessons, so she would be more energized and sharp when working on her homework. But since the time has changed, she keeps working hard, but the difference is that she is not keeping up with her health. As you can see, the time change, although made with good intentions by the FUSD will really be damaging the health of us high school students - especially those enrolled in AP and honors classes. If you agree, please sign the petition to convince the Fremont Unified School District board to change high school timing back to 7:35 am. FUSD high schools have started at 7:35 am for many, many years. Please sign the petition if you would like to keep it that way.