A group of Myers Park High School students is pushing Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to start high schools later, arguing that current start times leave teens chronically sleep deprived.
Most CMS high schools begin classes around 7:15 a.m. The students say that schedule runs counter to adolescent biology — and research shows later start times could improve teens’ mental health and academic performance.
Myers Park junior Ella Shaller first learned about teen sleep deprivation through a project for her school’s Community Problem Solvers Club. What began as an extracurricular assignment quickly became personal.
“I’ve actually become invested in this,” Shaller said. “I’ve learned a ton about the effect it has on me and the people around me. And I do genuinely want to see change happen, which I wasn’t expecting going into this.”
Shaller and her teammates want CMS to flip its bell schedule, with elementary schools starting earlier and high schools starting later. They want high schools to begin around 8:30 a.m.
“The community would see a huge increase and difference if teens were able to get the sufficient amount of sleep,” Shaller said. “Mental health would improve, mood would improve, overall performance — people would be more prepared. It would just overall improve the mood and effectiveness of all adolescents in general.”
The students say the issue is not about wanting to sleep in, but circadian rhythms. They say teenagers are biologically inclined to fall asleep and wake up later, while younger children tend to wake earlier. Research backs them up: the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that middle and high schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m.
“A substantial body of research has now demonstrated that delaying school start times is an effective countermeasure to chronic sleep loss and has a wide range of potential benefits to students with regard to physical and mental health, safety, and academic achievement,” the AAP wrote in a statement that’s been active since 2014.
Experts agree
The Myers Park students have gathered endorsements from seven local sleep experts, including Dr. Douglas Kirsch, director of sleep medicine at Atrium Health.
“I was actually really happy to see that some of the students at Myers Park had put together some thinking around this,” Kirsch said.
While Kirsch told WFAE he wouldn’t make any specific policy recommendation, he did agree that research shows later school start times have benefits for teens. That’s because as teens get older, their biological clocks shift backwards.
“This is not just a fault of a child or of a parent,” Kirsch said. “It is a biological drive for them to stay up later and to want to sleep later. And that is the exact opposite of what happens with their school schedule.”
Importantly, Kirsch also said research shows that when schools do change their start times, students do get more sleep. And it’s been well-established that more sleep has benefits, especially for young people.
“They perform better, they show up to school more, the mood is better, and their suicide rate is lower,” he said.
Logistical hurdles
The students have spoken at a CMS school board meeting, contacted elected officials, surveyed their peers and communicated with district administrators. They also published an op-ed.
CMS officials said the students were connected to Superintendent Crystal Hill’s Student Advisory Council, but at this time, the district “has not made any decision or formal adjustments to high school bell schedules for the current or upcoming academic year.”
Ashley Hall, coach of the Community Problem Solvers Club, said the students have learned lessons beyond sleep science as they’ve encountered slow responses and resistance.
“I think they got a crash course in bureaucratic process,” Hall said. “But just that you keep progressing, you keep following up, and you keep advocating.”
While research supports later start times, changing bell schedules would come with significant challenges. CMS would have to rework bus routes for a fleet larger than Charlotte Area Transit System’s, and athletics, after-school programs and family schedules would all be affected.
Other districts have struggled with similar efforts. California passed a law mandating 8:30 a.m. start times. Florida passed one, too — but later repealed it due to logistical challenges. In 2024, Wake County considered later starts but ultimately backed away amid logistical concerns and mixed community reaction.
Violet Salameh, another member of the Myers Park team, said the students understand the scope of what they are proposing.
“Changing and shifting the whole start time in multiple schools is a big task,” Salameh said. “People are so used to tradition — and if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. But we’re trying to make them aware that this is a serious problem and it could bring along a lot of benefits if we actually take that jump.”
Those benefits could include improved attention, safer teen driving and fewer students struggling to stay awake in early-morning classes.
