The Talon conducted a survey earlier this month to determine student sleep and attendance habits, and to see where students stand on changing school start time. The random survey was distributed to 103 individuals; 74 were returned.

Here are the results:

• 54% of high school students believe Centennial has an attendance problem (margin of error: ±11%: 43-65%)
• 71% of students believe Centennial need a new start time.(±10%)
• On average, students get 6.8 hours of sleep a night; according to nearly every national sleep study available, that means only 25% of students get the recommended amount of sleep.
• 46% say they are present 95%-100% of the time  (margin of error: ±11).
• 39%  say they are present 74%-94% of the time (±11).
• Fewer than 1% believe they are absent more than half the time (This is an ironic statement as an attendance survey could miss those with poor attendance.)
• 65% of students say Wednesday late start has no effect on their attendance. (±10%)
• 57% of students say they are late to 1st period most often, followed by any lunch period ( period 10, then period 10. (±11)

• 71%  of students are not worried about the 90% to go to prom rule.  This could be because they have 90% or better attendance, or because they simply do not want to attend Prom in the first place. (±10%)
• Almost 40%  of students would like to be part of a club or sport but are deterred by the school workload.  (±11)
• 41% of CHS students are already in clubs.  (±11)
• 84% of students in clubs believe doing so improves their attendance (±8%)
• 66% say that their top reason for missing school is illness. This is followed by a lack of sleep, stress, home issues, vacation and simply not wanting to attend.
• 54% of CHS students say they are late to zero or one class in a given week.  (±11)
• 40% are late 2-4 periods a week.  (±11)
• Very few.  0.06% are late to 5+ periods a week. (±11)

From the same survey students were asked to make a variety of comments.  Here are some of those:

• [The 90% attendance rule] is stupid. It punishes the people on edge, but doesn’t make up for the chronic skippers.
• Get better teachers and administrators. Something to look forward to.
• Later times would not result in later/less sleep in students. Would save the school money (Less heating) and raise attendance.
• It prepares us for waking up early for work.
• There tends to be a theme that nobody wants to go to school because they feel dead.
• It is the student’s decision for themselves if they want to come or not. Their future.
• “Sleep can benefit all people and how hard one works.