(PITTSBURGH, Penn.) — A school district in Pennsylvania is proposing starting classes later in the morning to improve the physical health and mental well-being of students.

Upper St. Clair School District — a suburb of Pittsburgh — would change the start times of its high schools, elementary schools and middle schools, if the plan is approved by the school board, Superintendent Dr. John Rozzo told ABC News.

Currently, high school students in the district begin classes at 7:30 a.m. ET. However, under the new start time, they would begin at 8:00 a.m. ET.

Because of transportation — such as school buses — being pushed back for older kids, elementary and middle school students would also get later start times with the former now beginning at 8:35 a.m. ET and the latter at 8:55 a.m. ET.

Rozzo said that the district had been studying the benefits of moving back school start times since the early 1990s, but it never got off the ground. However, it was revisited in 2015 as part of the district’s five-year plan.

“One of the focal points of that 2015 strategic plan was the high school experience and examining start time for students and the impact it had on academics, on their health, their mental health and behavioral health and physical health,” he said.

The COVID-19 pandemic delayed plans but now “we finally feel confident that we had a point making the recommendation and hopefully, if approved, would go into effect in August,” Rozzo added.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics have both advocated for later start times for students.

It is currently recommended that teenagers between ages 13 to 18 get between eight and 10 hours of regular sleep every night.

Research has shown this helps reduce the risk of being overweight, suffering from symptoms of depression, poor academic performance in school and engaging in risky behaviors such as smoking, drinking and drug use.

“This is not something that’s driven by our opinions or our personal preferences, or even administrative conveyance,” Rozzo said. “It’s driven by what is well documented in the research literature, and that’s that later starts have a significant amount of benefits for students, particularly adolescents and teens.”

Of course, the district is not the first in the country to introduce such a measure.

In 2019, California became the first state to mandate that high schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m.

Bills have been introduced asking for similar start times, including in New Jersey and in Tennessee.

For the Upper St. Clair School District, the recommendation for the change in start times will be presented at a May school board meeting, where there will be a vote for approval.

Rozzo said the recommendation has been met with overwhelmingly positive feedback from students, staff and parents alike and — although recognizing every district has specific needs — he hopes other administrators consider changing starting times.

“I would hope that as more districts like ours make this change and that others see the importance and the need to also do it,” he said. “I fully recognize though everyone has their own unique challenges specific to their communities, specific to their districts…I think if it were easy, a lot more people would have done it already.”

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(FORT LEE, Va.) — Fort Lee, a U.S. Army post named after the leader of the Confederate army during the Civil War, was renamed Fort Gregg-Adams in honor of two Black U.S. Army trailblazers during a redesignation ceremony Thursday.

“I hope that this community will look with pride on the name Fort Gregg-Adams and that the name will instill pride in every soldier entering our mighty gates,” said Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg, one of the pioneers the Virginia post is renamed after, during the ceremony.

Among his accomplishments in over 35 years of service beginning in 1946, Gregg was the first Black quartermaster officer to rise to the rank of brigadier general, according to Maj. Gen. Mark Simerly, commanding general of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Support Command and senior commander of Fort Lee. When Gregg was promoted to lieutenant general, he became the first Black officer in the Army to reach a three-star rank.

The army post was also renamed in recognition of Lt. Col. Charity Adams, who paused her pursuit of a master’s degree in psychology to serve in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II, the Army said. At 25, she was chosen to lead the sole unit of predominantly Black women in the European Theater of Operations. Her unit delivered mail to and from millions of soldiers fighting in Europe.

The military base had previously been named after Gen. Robert E. Lee, the commander of the Confederate forces.

During Gregg’s remarks, he noted how proud he was to share the honor with Adams.

“Her performance in getting the mail delivered in a very chaotic environment has made the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion a legend that gets bigger every day,” he said.

Simerly described the two pioneers as “exceptional leaders.”

“They led with dignity, they looked the part, they maintained their composure and they led by example,” he said. “In short, these two epitomize the professional qualities we seek in every leader who wears the uniform of the United States Army.”

Fort Gregg-Adams is one of several Army installations being redesignated in the mission of removing displays commemorating the Confederacy, according to the Army.

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(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday it has suspended its search for a cruise ship passenger from Australia who went overboard a few hundred miles off the coast of Hawaii.

The incident occurred at approximately 11:03 p.m. Tuesday night, when the Joint Rescue Coordination Center Honolulu received a report from the Quantum of the Seas cruise ship that a man had gone overboard about 500 miles south of Kailua Kona, Big Island, according to the Coast Guard.

The cruise ship’s crew searched for approximately two hours, deploying six life rings, the Coast Guard said.

A Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point C-130 Hercules aircrew launched at 7 a.m. on Wednesday morning and arrived on the scene at approximately 9 a.m. but did not have any luck finding the missing man after completing five searches.

The search resumed Thursday morning, before the Coast Guard announced it has suspended the active search later that day.

“After reviewing all relevant information of the case and discussing with our Australian consulate counterparts as well as with the next of kin, the Coast Guard has made the difficult decision to suspend the active search for the passenger aboard the Quantum of the Seas,” Kevin Cooper, a search and rescue mission coordinator for the Joint Rescue Coordination Center Honolulu, said in a statement.

Quantum of the Seas departed from Brisbane, Australia, on April 12 and is scheduled to arrive in Honolulu on April 28.

Royal Caribbean — who operates Quantum of the Seas — also released a statement on Wednesday confirming the missing passenger.

“While on its trans-pacific sailing, a guest onboard Quantum of the Seas went overboard,” Royal Caribbean said. “The ship’s crew immediately launched a search and rescue operation and is working closely with local authorities.”

Authorities did not give any further details on how the man may have ended up going overboard.

ABC News’ Clara McMichael contributed to this report.

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