Increased Passing Periods, Shorter Lunches

Two major changes to the schedule occured this year due to district-wide changes prompted by compliance for instructional time with the Colorado Department of Education.  Lunch time has decreased to 36 minutes due to passing periods changing from 5 to 7 minutes. The reason for the change in class time and lunch/passing periods is because the instruction time in the classroom was not adding up to the standard for Colorado, (Colorado law requires a minimum of 1080 annual instructional hours for middle and high school) but since passing period counts as instruction time, and the lunch period doesn’t, the passing period was extended and the lunch period was significantly decreased, impacting students traveling off-campus for lunch.

“There’s no time to go anywhere, to do anything, because you have to wait in long lines,” Azure Aguilar (10) said. “And by the time you get anything, you’re rushing back with 5 minutes left.”

Other students feel that the passing periods are too long. 

Christopher Lombardi (10) said, “I think the passing periods are a little too long, because I feel like I can go across the whole school in 5 minutes, instead of the 7 they extended it to.” 

The only point of interest that has affected some students is the amped-up punishments for tardiness and the shorter lunch period. Some students would like to see things go back to the way they were last year. 

“I would make the passing periods shorter and increase the lunch period,” Kellen Payne (11) said.

Stricter Consequences for Cell-Phone Use

A new phone policy introduced second semester last year is being more strictly enforced this year. The policy states that students must have their phones out of sight or in a provided phone caddy. In most classrooms, phones are typically stored in the student’s bag, unless a teacher specifies otherwise. But overall there has been a major decrease in phone usage that students have noticed. 

 “[The Phone Policy] was not implemented with fidelity by everybody here,” said Principal Korina Bierman, “So we beefed up the consequences a little bit and created some uniformity.” The Phone Policy has assigned each room with a phone cubby, which is where phones are stored the duration of the class period. 

Overall it seems most people are indifferent about this change. “It hasn’t really made an effect on me….but I think I wouldn’t make it as strict,” Payne said.

Lombardi said, “No, I won’t do anything different with the phone policy.” This seems to be a common theme among students, showing that most didn’t use their phones much in school to start, so they were not terribly affected by it.