One big change for the 2019-2020 school year is that the Access period has been moved to the end of the school day. Some students, teachers and parents have expressed their frustration with the setup. “It just doesn’t make logical sense,” said Deborah Lynch, social studies teacher. “It’s unfair for students who have their 6th period off or B-Lunch just to come back for six minutes just to check-in.”
Justin Jung, senior, is one of those students who has 6th period off. He said, “It’s just not fair that it is required that we check into access. It doesn’t make sense. Maybe Access at the end of the day is better for the students, but required check-in for all classes isn’t fair.”
Lynch has provided a solution. “I believe we should keep Access at the end of the day,” Lynch said, “but instead of requiring a six minute check-in, which doesn’t sit well, maybe add those six minutes that we needed to homeroom instead.”
However, there is much more behind the scenes than meets the eye. Christopher Page, principal, said, “The reason that we have required check-in is not just for instructional minutes, but to pass it as an entire period. Without this, most seniors would have to take an extra course or risk not graduating.” There are no plans to change the schedule in years to come so that “we can have stability, since we’ve had four schedule changes in four years,” said Page.
Zach Milone, Staff reporter
