Thousands of high schoolers and their parents got a shock some weeks ago when they learned that their already brutal start time of 8 a.m. was being pushed back even earlier this year. Now these teens are starting school at 7:50, which is why, as the second week of school gets underway, you may be seeing a lot of bleary-eyed, crabby kids.

What makes the change all the more startling is that activists here—and around the country—have been pushing for later start times for middle and high schoolers given what science tells us is the need for adolescents to get enough sleep. “Considerable research confirms the relationship between school start times, sleep deprivation, and student performance, truancy, and absenteeism, as well as depression, mood swings and impulse control,” reads a petition by a local chapter of a group called Start School Later. The petition now has more than 4,000 signatures, according to Cynthia Jatul, one of the leaders of the local group as well as a parent and teacher at Roosevelt High.

Jatul, speaking to SW this morning, says she and like-minded activists were encouraged when the school board voted in July to study the issue. Then came the 7:50 start time, now implemented at all but a handful of high schools. “Why are we going in the wrong direction?” Jatul asked in an e-mail she sent out to supporters last week.

That question isn’t easy to answer. Even school board member Sharon Peaslee says, “I’ve been trying to figure that out myself.”

What is clear is that the change is related to school bus changes the district implemented earlier this year, which are all about saving money. Consolidating school start times was part of that, according to a Sept. 4 district memo from Assistant Superintent of Operations Pegi McEvoy. Some high schools were already starting at 7:50, and the district opted to make that the norm. (Mysteriously, a few lucky high schools get to start at 8:30 or later. See this chart of all the district’s start times.)

“It’s not really rational,” Jatul comments, however. She points out that most high school students don’t take a school bus. The district decided some years back to rely on King County Metro for its oldest students. (Among the exceptions—amounting to some 1,200 high school students riding yellow buses, according to district figures– are special education students,)

So Jatul has launched the call for a new wave of letter writing to the superintendent, whom she says has the authority to determine start times.

Meanwhile, the board-ordered analysis of start times is underway. And a district statement offers this silver lining: Should the board decide to enact later start times, the bus consolidation done this year would ultimately “make the transition much easier.”