Stafford High School has been required by the School Board to start school 10 minutes earlier due to the incompetency of Hess to complete the new building, and the parking lot, on time. Students are displeased with this as a whole and seek alternative options.

We are against it because:

1. Teenagers require at least 9 hours of sleep each night to be healthy. With the average teenager unable to sleep until 11:00pm and school starting at 7:30am now, it continues to be an impossible task for most students. It was difficult enough at 7:40am.
2. Traffic patterns have worsened due to construction and the removal of parking spaces to make room for buses and other school traffic. Starting school earlier makes it more difficult to arrive on time.
3. The new schedule does not disperse time effectively. Only three minutes have been added to first and fourth block, which will most likely only go to getting settled in the beginning of class and packing up at the end. Third block gained no time and second block lost two minutes. Minutes were somehow appropriated to lunch, however.
4. It is entirely the fault of the building company that school opened late and students are being punished.
5. If we had missed two additional days, we could have applied for a waiver. If we had missed MORE days, we could have not been required to make up any at all.
6. There would be no significant cost for running the buses for Stafford alone. It would be the same if we started school with the rest of the county. Additionally, Stafford continues to receive money from Hess for being late on the completion of the still unfinished building.

Students would rather

1. Come to school on holidays such as President's Day and Columbus Day.
2. Come to school on teacher work days.
3. Turn early out days into full days

While students are grateful for the opportunity to have a new building, they are displeased with the failure of Hess to finish the school and the parking lot and displeased with the decision to start school with the rest of the county. The decision to start school 10 minutes early is not only an undesirable decision for students and faculty, but an ineffective one.