Students have encountered new challenges this semester; getting used to a new bell schedule, fewer ELTs, and a new time for lunch.
“I absolutely hate it. It makes my afternoon feel so long, which makes the day feel long,” senior Katie Sharff said.
The change of three classes after lunch instead of two has made students like Sharff unhappy with the new schedule. However, not all students believe that this change is harmful.
“I feel like it goes way faster. I feel like the routine has been way smoother with having lunch after fourth hour, and then just having three classes afterwards,” senior Dahlia Vera said.
With three classes instead of two after lunch, the day is more balanced, when previously the timing of these hours clashed with the pacing of the day and many teachers’ lesson plans.
“I think from a teacher’s perspective I’ve been enjoying it being four to three instead of five to two because that was a long time especially to teachers who don’t have a prep hour,” English teacher Erika Crowley said.
With lunch earlier, the scheduling isn’t the only thing that is changing. Many students have mentioned that the time of lunch itself is now a problem.
“I’m so used to eating at 1 pm that now I don’t eat my lunch, and then I’m hungry during sports and work, ” Scharff said.
With lunch an hour earlier, the student athletes are more likely to feel hungry during their after-school practices and may need to pack something extra to eat later in the day. However, athletes aren’t the only members of extracurricular activities affected by changes. The lack of ELT days has shaken up many clubs.
“I feel like it could impact some school activities like FFA or clubs,” senior Antony Belmontes said.
Last year, clubs often used ELT as a convenient meeting time. FFA, for example, would run most ELTs. With fewer ELTs, FFA has now moved their meeting time to happen after school. Besides fewer ELTs, another problem for clubs is having two sections instead of three. One club that is threatened by this problem is Yearbook club.
“We usually met once a month last year, but it was always in the third part of ELT because all of my students are involved in other clubs, so I’m worried about losing students because they are being pulled to multiple places,” Crowley said.
Despite the mixed reactions, administration had clear reasons for changing the schedule.
“We have talked about the benefits of aligning our schedule with the middle school to create efficiencies with shared staff, reduce conflicts with shared spaces, and to ease the transition from middle school to high school,” Principal Bryant Bednarek said.
Problems with the different schedules between the middle and high school have been a problem for many years. With more and more staff now being split between schools, having two schedules simply wouldn’t work.
“The sharing of staff is the biggest reason. Mr. Granados, Mr. Evans, Mrs. Daubner, and Mrs. Miller all teach one section of middle school. Additionally, we share Ms. Lane for choir and share spaces. It seemed there was an overlap or issues with the shared spaces with the different schedules,” Bednarek said.
