shortening class periods to 48 minutes from 50 minutes, and shortening lunch periods to 35 minutes from 50 minutes.

The decision to adjust start times comes after more than a year of planning and discussion by a district calendar committee of teachers and administrators, who took their cue from what colleagues, students and parents said during listening sessions and a community survey with more than 6,500 responses.

“I’m super happy with it,” Superintendent David Schuler said of the new start times.

“We engaged all our stakeholders. We reached out to parents, students and staff, and the feedback was consistent.”

Schuler has said he believes the changes would ultimately create healthier and more productive students, many of whom are overtired and stressed by the demands of the high school environment.

Along with the later start times come other schedule-related changes the district plans to implement next school year:

• Co-curricular activities should be held after school, and not go for more than two hours with the exception of varsity sports.

• Varsity practices will be limited to two hours and 45 minutes each day, and the same team can’t have practices both before and after school on the same day.

• After-school activities should end by 7:30 p.m., though there are exceptions, such as the week of dress rehearsals before a school play.

• Except in unique circumstances, homework won’t be assigned over homecoming weekend, Thanksgiving break, winter break, Presidents Day weekend or spring break. Teachers are limited on doing lesson planning or grading over breaks.

Schuler said the calendar committee will evaluate the effectiveness of the changes and then make tweaks where needed.

The school board has already approved changes to the calendar starting in the 2017-2018 school year, in which final exams will be held before winter break.

School will start about a week earlier than usual, on Aug. 16, and graduation will be over Memorial Day weekend.