Proposal memo on changing office hours to Mon-Thurs instead of Mon-Fri
For this assignment, you will be creating a PERSUASIVE MEMO to propose a change at work. For example, if you are studying to be a nurse, you might propose changing the curriculum for nurses because you have research that supports that it would benefit them, OR you might propose a change in protocol at a hospital or doctor’s office because you have research that supports something in favor for the doctor and or patients.
You will focus on a policy or procedure that has a chance of being changed should your request be considered.
You will need at least two (2) researched sources cited in APA format within the document to support your memo. Ideally, you will use the research to support what you are proposing. See example below:
MEMO
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: October 20, 2021
To: Colleen Weiner (Principal) MHS, Jason Serra (Assistant Principal) MHS
From: Student Name, Behavior Technician, Middletown High School
Subject: Proposal to Delay School Start Time
My name is Student Name and I have been working in the Middletown Public Schools District for 3 years. My first
year in the district I started as a Paraprofessional, so I have had plenty of one-on-one interactions with all the students
in the schools. As a Behavior Technician of the Middletown Public Schools District, I have noticed that the morale of
the staff and students has been fluctuating. This memo is written with the purpose of delaying the starting time of the
school day. The benefits of delaying the start of the school day will be explained further below.
CURRENT SITUATION
The current start time of the school day is 7:25 am, students start to arrive at school around 7:00 am. The early start to
the school day shows students being tired and wanting to skip class or avoid the work in the room. When students skip
the class, the teacher must stop the lesson to inform other staff members that the student is missing so that they may
be located. This disruption causes other students to miss out on learning time and causes the lesson to be cut short.
When these students that are skipping the first period are found, they immediately resort to offensive language and
avoidance tactics. The students that have been skipping class due to being tired or having behavior issues in the halls
in the mornings have shown a decrease in their grade point averages and tardiness to their first period classes.
BENEFITS OF NEW APPROACH
By delaying the start of the school day adolescent students can follow a natural sleep-wake schedule which would be
falling asleep around 10:45 pm and waking around 8:00 am. “A consistent finding in studies of adolescent sleep
patterns is that they tend to stay up late, for example, 60% of the 11th and 12th graders for whom they surveyed stated
that they enjoyed staying up late, another large survey study found that 45% of 10th to 12th graders go to bed after
midnight on school nights, and 90% retire later than midnight on weekends” (Wolfson, 1998). This natural sleep-wake
cycle has changed when children transition into the adolescence stage, “causing them to exhibit a natural preference
to go to bed later and to wake up later in the day” (Kirby, 2011). In the current situation schools are forcing students
to wake up earlier than the body would naturally allow, causing them to be more tired than they should be within the
first hour of school. It was researched that one benefit of a delayed start time is that “students were now awake during
the first hour of class, the principal reported fewer disciplinary incidents in the halls and lunchroom, and students
reported less depression and feelings of greater efficacy” (Wahlstrom, 2016). Along with the reports of students feeling
more awake, the students that attend a school with a later start time have shown improvements in tardiness. “In the
school districts of Minnesota, Colorado, and Wyoming, there was a 66% drop in tardiness” (Wahlstrom, 2016). Other
than the matter of attendance, schools that install a later start time have shown major health improvements of the
students as well. When students can get their full eight hours of more or sleep, they tend to show less at-risk behaviors.
“Cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use declined by 8% to 14% when teens slept eight or more hours each night, with
depression and sexual activity also declining by 9% to 11%” (Wahlstrom, 2016). When schools engage in a later start
time, they are fostering the natural habits of adolescents and will see a decrease in at risk behaviors. These benefits
will improve the morale of all students and employees in the district because it allows the students to get the adequate
amount of sleep, allowing for a smoother transition for staff and students in the mornings.
PRIMARY IMPLEMENTATION
To create an environment where the high school students could start later would be easy to implement. Starting in the
fall of 2022, Middletown Public Schools District would simply need to modify the start times of all the schools. The
current schedule allows for the high schools to open first, followed by the middle schools, and lastly the elementary
schools. By switching the first opening schools to the elementary schools and following in reverse order of the current,
the district would be able to achieve the goal of having a later start time for the adolescent aged students. By waiting
until the fall term of 2022, the Middletown School District would ensure that they would have enough time to send
out letters to all families of the switch in school start times, as well as communicate these changes to the bus company
for which they would need the summer to adjust to the new bus routes.
An argument that may arise from students’ families would be about the parents needing to get to work. By making this
switch in start times we could be alleviating the stress on parents getting to work on time for the younger students. The
elementary schools currently start at 9:05 am, with most working parents needing to be at work by 9:00 am. These
parents tend to hire and pay for a sitter to bring the children to school in the morning. The high school students are of
age where they can be left home alone, whereas the elementary school students cannot be left home alone because of
their age. So, by making the switch to a later start time these parents can arrive to work at their normal reporting time
while their elementary aged students arrive at school; and the high school students can stay home alone until their
busses arrive to go to school.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
If the Middletown Public Schools district implemented a later school start time, they would be able to see a change in
their students’ work and social lives. By allowing students to get a full eight or more hours of sleep these students
would be able to focus better on their studies and achieve higher grades. As the years progress with the new
implementation of a later start time, the district would be able to see an increasing slope from their data on assessments
that the students take and a decrease in the at-risk behaviors that the students engage in.
CLOSING REMARKS
By considering the change to a later start time, the district will not only see a change in morale of the students and the
staff, but they will also see a major change in the academic performance and the health of all the students as mentioned
above. A follow up email will be sent out on November 1, 2021, to come up with a time to meet in person to discuss
the next steps for this process.
Works Cited
Kirby, M., Maggi, S., & D’Angiulli, A. (2011). School Start Times and the Sleep-Wake Cycle of Adolescents: A
Review and Critical Evaluation of Available Evidence. Educational Researcher, 40(2), 56–61.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41058203
Wahlstrom, K. L. (2016). Later start time for teens improves grades, mood, and safety. The Phi Delta Kappan, 98(4),
8–14. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24893397
Wolfson, A. R., & Carskadon, M. A. (1998). Sleep Schedules and Daytime Functioning in Adolescents. Child
Development, 69(4), 875–887. https://doi.org/10.2307/11323
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