Engaging the community in the process of changing school start times: experience of the Cherry Creek School District

Despite growing evidence of the positive impact of later school start times on adolescent health and academic outcomes, relatively few districts have changed start times due to concerns about transportation, child care, and athletics/extracurricular activities. This paper provides a case study of the Cherry Creek School District's (CCSD) successful efforts to change start times. The CCSD is a diverse district with an enrollment of almost 55,000 students in suburban Denver. As part of CCSD's strategic plan, a multi-disciplinary task force was formed to examine the impact of start times on student achievement, and recommend a start time schedule driven by best practices on adolescent sleep patterns, balanced with family and community needs. Over 18 months the task force's work included engaging the community through meetings, as well as conducting a large survey (n = 24,574) of parents, teachers, and students, and gathering online feedback. An iterative process utilized feedback at every stage to refine the final recommendation given to the Board of Education. Survey results, implementation considerations, outcome evaluation plans, and lessons learned are discussed.