Students, teachers adapt to new schedule

By Christopher Herrera & Francisco Turrubiates |

This year administration decided to try something new with the schedule. Instead of three lunches with 50 minutes to eat, now students have four lunches of 30 minutes.

According to Curriculum AP Lori Murach, the reason for the change was so students would have more academic time and less time to potentially leave campus during lunch. The extra time goes into an academic class that allows them extra time for STAAR preparation, athletics, arts or AP courses.

Students gather in the courtyard during the shorter lunch periods. Photo by Leslie Santana.

Students gather in the courtyard during the shorter lunch periods. Photo by Leslie Santana.

“We are constantly checking data,” Murach said.

In the beginning, it took some getting used to for students to know where to go at a certain bell.

“The new schedule is very complicated,” senior Charles Peterson said.

Peterson also said he thinks the lunch lines are way too long to be waiting to get food and the lunches being 30 minutes long is not enough time amount of time to eat.

But according to Mrs. Garcia, one of the lunch ladies, the new schedule was a great change this year. With just under 3000 students at the school, last year there were 900-1000 students per lunch. Now there are about 750 per lunch, with C lunch having slightly more due to athletics.

Garcia said having four lunches instead of three is very helpful not only for them but for the students as well such as getting their food faster with less kids in each lunch, without having enough extra time to get into trouble.

“It prevents having fights during lunch,” Garcia said.

Murach said there isn’t as much trash as there was in the courtyard or in the buildings with the shortened lunches. The new schedule also lengthened the school day by 10 minutes. With the school day being extended to 4:15 p.m., buses can get here more easily after their other runs and students don’t have to wait as long; when students are released they automatically get on the bus and head home for the day.

Senior Juan Calderon said thinks the new schedule has its pros and cons. A pro, he said, is that the new schedule discourages students from skipping and leaving campus, but he also thinks its complicated to deal with.

“For example, I don’t think its necessary to have an hour and a half in one class,” Calderon said.

With the lunch change, also students have a “long class,”extended to 85 minutes of class time.

Erika Sanchez is a co-teacher for the English III with Mrs. Quintanilla and during their long period class.

“I love the class. we transition into a new activity everyday during the additional 30 minutes. We have a lot of class participation and the students make it extremely entertaining. The time flies by,” Sanchez said.

Former staff writer Leslie Santana contributed to this report. 

Listen to Kelton Hill’s audio story on the new schedule featuring interviews with staff and students.

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