The 2024-2025 school year brought a major schedule change that significantly affected the daily routines of both students and teachers. The change, which has been in effect for a full semester, gave lunch its own block between the second and third classes of the day. Students get 30 minutes of lunch, and 30 minutes of flex to participate in clubs or get extra help. This is in contrast to previous years’ schedule, when there was a 30 minute lunch block included in the second class of the day, varying by what class students were in. This year’s schedule also removed the 10 minute break of strike time before the last class of the day, which was a controversial change.
“We wanted students to have more independence during the hour-long flex time,” said Assistant Principal Jeremy Cortash.” It would give them time to socialize and complete their homework, although it is hard to get students to utilize that time.”
Junior Gio Quagliata has issues with the new schedule.
“I miss the old schedule, and there’s too many people in each lunch,” said Quagliata. “I really enjoyed strike time because it gave me more time to hangout with my friends, so I do wish we could get that back.”
Security officers have begun locking the bathrooms during the flex period in order to prevent people from skipping in the bathroom, but students have expressed their frustration with not being able to use the restroom for that hour, except for the facilities in the front of the school.
“Locking the bathrooms is too much,” said senior Jimmy Burpoe, who overall finds the changes to be a net positive. “But I like this year’s schedule better, even though it’s more limited- the classes are shorter which is nice too.”
This new schedule change doesn’t only affect students- the staff have been drastically affected as well. With students being able to eat lunch anywhere in the school, the librarians face a large wave of students at the beginning of each flex. They get around 150 students per flex, which typically results in a messier space overall.
“Trying to get people to put their chairs back was extremely difficult,” said Jenna Lombardo, one of the school librarians. “The hardest part of FLEX is the first five minutes, when everybody comes running through the doors.”
However, some see the social aspects afforded by the new schedule as a positive.
“I really love [the schedule change] because last year I noticed there were a lot of students that had to sit by themselves, so I’m hearing from a lot of students that they’re happy they get to sit with their friends now,” said school counselor, Nayeli Selvaraj.
It is undetermined if this schedule will be maintained in upcoming school years, but for now, it’s here to stay.
