The Fairfax County School Board voted last week to delay consideration of new middle school start times in order to focus on ongoing school boundary adjustments and identify an option that won’t affect the school system’s budget.
Mount Vernon District Representative Mateo Dunne, who introduced the motion during the school board’s meeting last Thursday (Oct. 23), reaffirmed his support for later start times but emphasized the importance of waiting until other changes are finalized.
“We need to really take a step back make sure that we fully and successfully implement all of these different changes, and don’t try to do too much at once,” he said.
The push for Fairfax County Public Schools to adjust its start times gained momentum in the mid-2010s, with the school board promising to revisit middle schools later after adjusting high school times in 2015. Advocates say later start times that align with teens’ sleep patterns could benefit their mental health and performance.
In February, North Carolina-based consulting firm Prismatic Services presented FCPS leaders with six options for shifting school start times.
However, Superintendent Michelle Reid told the board that the options were either not cost-neutral or not possible, given the current bus schedules. Reid pointed to two alternatives outside of Prismatic’s proposal that were included in a recent survey.
Under the first option, elementary school would start first at 7:45am followed by high school and middle school. The second option would see middle school starting at 8 a.m.
“I want to be very clear publicly: these two models were not selected by the board. They were not approved by the board. They were not in any way acted upon by the board. These two models came from our offices, because what we tried to do was look at what would budget-neutral options be,” Reid said.
The survey results showed that neither of the two options had clear majority support from the community. Respondents cited transportation, extracurricular activities, and work schedules as their primary concerns.
However, for Reid, budget constraints were also a big factor.
“One of the things I just want remind the board about is that we’re currently in a significant budget challenge time,” the superintendent said. “Our county Board of Supervisors has talked about that, and we have a lot of commitments to make and keep within our budget constraints this year.”
Despite the delay, Reid emphasized her support for healthier start times.
“Research supports healthy start times. I think we’re all committed to making this happen, so I think we want to do it well. So a pause is not a no, it’s simply a we’re not ready yet,” she said.
The motion passed 9-2 with Mason District Representative Ricardy Anderson and at-large school board member Ryan McElveen voting against it.
Anderson pointed to how long the change has been underway as her reason for opposing the motion.
“I think my concern here is we spent a lot of years talking about this. Everybody’s committed, but there’s been no action,” Anderson said.
The school board unanimously voted in late March for a proposal from Anderson directing Reid to develop a plan for testing later middle school start times in Mason District. A recommendation for a pilot program at a single middle school was made public at the board’s April 10 meeting, but it was ultimately not approved, per the school board’s meeting agenda.
It’s unclear when the board decided not to move forward with the pilot.
McElveen echoed Anderson’s concerns.
“It’s an unmitigated failure of this board to have let this linger so long. We failed our community, and particularly our middle schoolers, and we continue to do so,” McElveen said.
While the other school board members supported the motion, some pointed out that finding a solution that has no impact on the budget is not likely.
“Even though I support the language as it’s stated in this motion, to be realistic, finding a budget-neutral solution to get this done is going to be hard, if not impossible,” at-large school board member Ilryong Moon said.
Reid was directed to present viable options by December 2026.
