The Ohio County Board of Education continues to move forward in attempting to make start times later at Wheeling Park High School.

It recently adopted a resolution forming a new committee to form a concrete plan. And while board member Andy Garber’s amendments to the resolution weren’t adopted, they definitely need to be considered by the committee and the board, whether or not they ended up in black and white.

Most importantly, the committee should be able to tell the board that, after all the research and discussion is done, a plan to change start times just isn’t feasible. Garber himself is on the committee, and he has said that the science behind a later start time for high school students is sound. Yet that doesn’t mean the school district can pull it off.

“Am I skeptical we can make it happen? Yes. But I’m interested in making it happen,” Garber said at the last board meeting.

Changing Wheeling Park’s start time would lead to a number of other dominoes falling. Will the district need more buses? Will it be able to find people to drive those new buses when school districts around West Virginia already are struggling to find drivers for their current fleets? And what about child care for the district’s younger students, including the children of WPHS teachers who would finish work later in the day?

Any plan coming from that committee must have specific answers to those questions, not just possibilities or suggestions. If the board tries to implement a plan without those specific answers, it could lead to failure and to a situation worse than kids just having to wake up early.

Later high school start times are better for students. The research behind it is legitimate. They fit better with teens’ natural sleep patterns. The board was right in forming the committee to, once and for all, devise a plan that could make those later start times a reality. The time for just talking about it is over.

“Let’s create the plan first, then take it to the community, so that we’re all talking about the same thing,” Board President David Croft said.

Yet, despite the committee’s best efforts, there may just be too many hurdles to clear to make it happen. There’s also the chance that, when the plan gets presented to the community, parents will mention all the difficulties they’d face if those new start times are enacted. The board must listen to those concerns and consider them when casting their votes.

This committee can’t be looked at as simply a rubber stamp for later start times. This group is going to spend months researching the best possible plan to make those later times work. They’re the experts. If they can devise a good plan, WPHS students will be better off. But if the committee finds there are too many roadblocks, those wanting later times must accept that.