With a 6-1 vote, the Seattle School Board voted to move back high school and middle school start times for the 2016-17 year.

Seattle high schools and middle schools will begin at 8:45 a.m. next fall, while most elementary schools will start at 7:55 a.m. Elementary and K-8 schools in the district’s “tier three” group will see start times pushed back to 9:35 a.m.

The Mercer Island School District formed a steering committee with the Bellevue School District in December of 2014 to study implications and impacts of changing high school start times. Last June, the committee advised against moving back start times in Mercer Island.

“I support the Seattle School Board’s decision to realign bell times to sleep patterns for teenagers and how those changes support student performance,” Mercer Island Superintendent Dr. Gary Plano stated in an email to the Reporter. “However, our two communities do not compare equally on size, travel times to school and after school programs, considering Mercer Island’s 13 square miles to Seattle’s 143 square miles. We are studying the addition of Metro routes to be added next year to shorten bus rides for high school students both to and from school. We are also surveying parents on their support for late-start Wednesday.”