Thursday, November 30, 2017

Summary agenda -

  1. Township Stormwater Stakeholders meetings update
  2. Township Traffic/Pedestrian/Cycling Safety Committee meeting update
  3. Penn Valley/Narberth Business District on Montgomery Avenue (brief)
  4. LM School District facilities update (brief)
  5. Main presentation by Amy Norr, a parent and chair of the LM School District's Interschool Council Committee on Sleep and Later Start Times.  Click here for links to their FB page as well as a recent WHYY radio cast.  Read background information below.

My mind does not function at 7:30 in the morning.  I am in a constant state of sleep deprivation.I feel miserable most of the time... I get grueling headaches...I feel sort of sick most days.  (Lack of sleep) makes every single task twice as difficult and eats away at my energy, effort and motivation.  

-Lower Merion and Harriton High School students, Sleep Survey Responses, June 2015

The average adolescent is chronically sleep-deprived.  Teens need  8-10 hours of sleep nightly in order to function optimally, but most get much less. In August 2014, the American Academy of Pediatrics (“AAP”) stated that "chronic sleep loss in children and adolescents is one of the most common, and easily fixable, public health issues in the U.S. today".  The main contributor to insufficient teen sleep is early high school start times. The AAP and other major national medical associations recommend that middle and high schools start at 8:30am or later in order to optimize student health and learning.

Lower Merion School District has formed a committee to delve into this issue, in an effort to address the problem of teen sleep deprivation.  Amy Norr, a parent in the district and chair of the district’s Interschool Council Committee on Sleep and Later Start Times, has advocated for later secondary start times for the past several years.  She will speak about the physical, mental, academic and safety issues associated with teen sleep deprivation, and what school districts are doing to address the problem and improve student health, safety and learning.