1. More high schools could start later. About time.

East Baton Rouge Parish school leaders are preparing to expand later start times after an experiment showed enough early promise to move ahead, giving the superintendent an early win on an issue that defeated his predecessors.

Why it matters: Research on teen sleep has been well-documented for years. Baton Rouge is now just catching up.

The details: Last year, the School Board approved schedule changes at six campuses to test whether shifting start times could improve attendance, academics and student well-being. Several elementary schools moved earlier to make room.

The real experiment was at Capitol High and Glen Oaks High—two schools that have long struggled with attendance and performance. Their start times shifted from 7:10 a.m. to 8:50 a.m., a dramatic change in a district where early bells have been treated as untouchable.

What the data shows: Results were mostly encouraging. At Glen Oaks High, where few other variables changed and comparisons are cleaner, unexcused tardies per student fell 65%, expulsions dropped 13% and fewer students earned Ds and Fs.

What's next: The district has given Superintendent Lamont Cole wide latitude to expand the pilot. For the coming school year, he’s considering shifts to start times at Belaire High, Park Forest Middle, Villa Del Rey, Greenbrier, La Belle Aire and Park Forest Elementary. The board is expected to approve his recommended changes in April.

What took so long: East Baton Rouge superintendents have floated later start times for years. The difference now is Cole. Insiders say he has been more deliberate about board politics than some predecessors, making sure members aren't blindsided—in other words, acting like a superintendent who actually understands how his board works.

The research: Major health organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, recommend that middle and high schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. The average U.S. public high school starts around 8 a.m., and roughly 10% begin before 7:30. Baton Rouge high schools start at 7:10 a.m.—less a school schedule than a sleep deprivation program.

The sleep problem: More than 70% of high school students don't get the recommended eight to 10 hours of sleep on school nights, according to the CDC. A study of more than 9,000 students at eight high schools found that when start times were 8:30 a.m. or later, more than 60% of students got at least eight hours, the minimum recommended for teens.

The trade-off: Pushing high school start times later usually means younger students start earlier, which creates its own problems. Earlier elementary and middle school schedules can drive up absences and squeeze working families already juggling drop-offs, jobs and child care.

The bottom line: Later start times aren't a magic fix, but they're one of the few education changes backed by actual science. And Cole is starting to look like the superintendent Baton Rouge kept searching for elsewhere—when he was already here, wanting the job for the right reason: to make the schools better.