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With the school board’s meeting on Monday January 11th, the district decided that we will be moving back to the hybrid schedule at the start of the second semester. The school will be going back to the groups A and B, with group A going to school on Mondays and Tuesdays, and group B going to school on Thursdays and Fridays, with Wednesday still being an asynchronous day. Another big change to the schedule is that the school day will now be starting at the traditional time of 8:00 AM, like last school year, which is a big change from the 9:45 start time that students have been blessed with since the end of August.
Most students are happy to start getting back to normal, as we’ve been virtual for months now, but the reactions to the 8:00 AM start time have not been very enthusiastic. Freshman Ryan Hetcko says, “I think it’s good that we can go back to school and get back to being normal”, echoing what most students have been feeling with the hybrid schedule shift. Regarding the shift of start times, Ryan thinks, “8:00 AM is a little early but it’s going to be that way later on, so we might as well get used to getting up early now.”
Other students have mostly echoed Ryan’s opinions on the new schedule. Sophomore Elizabeth Anderson said, “I have mixed emotions about the start time. When starting later it was nice not having to wake up as early but the class times were shorter. But when we start school earlier we are learning more and getting more done. I don’t want to wake up earlier but it is better for our education.”
Throughout this pandemic, one of the phrases that has often come up is “getting back to normal”. With going back to the 8:00 AM start time, it really seems like the district is trying to take steps in the positive direction, as students and teachers can agree that 100% virtual school is often a huge struggle, whether that’s technical difficulties or social isolation and not being able to see people face to face.
Another point that has come up has been making sure that we get the quality education that we need. Almost all students seem to agree that up to this point in the school year, we have not been learning as much as we had in years past, and that can obviously be attributed to the fact that we have almost 2 hours less to be in class. With going back to the 8:00 AM start time, students will get more time to be in class, and learn, and that will also be good for us in the future, as we will be better educated. All in all, many students realize that this is a necessity that we go back to our 8:00 AM start time, whether they like it or not, if we ever want to be able to get back to some sort of “normal” similar to years past.
