“I don’t think it’s going to work.” said an anonymous student. “There’s so many flaws, I just don’t get why they keep changing it.”
Students who have spent time without this schedule are concerned with the amount of class time they will lose and the effectiveness of this schedule. After advantage time failed last year, students are concerned that the four 25 minute periods will be a waste of time, resulting in the same results as advantage time.
“I don’t think it’s all bad since we have time for clubs to meet again. But it kind of sucks if you’re in a club that meets during the same period.” said an anonymous student.
Although controversial, Principal Stephen Mares believes this schedule will benefit students, helping them to work harder. The goal is to help students by giving them time to finish make up work and time to study, hopefully assisting them to improve academically.
“This gives them a chance to be in class and take care of their business, whether it be relearning a certain standard or objective or being able to make up some work, so I am hoping that has a positive effect,” said Mares.
Clubs are also scheduled to meet during these periods. Students who are already in four or more clubs might have to drop out due to scheduling conflicts or inability to leave the classroom due to makeup work or needing help from a teacher. Student run clubs such as the Athens Drive Women’s Association and Z club could potentially fail from this due to leaders in their club not being able to attend.
“A lot of the clubs I’m in are student based, so what if one of us needs to stay at Advantage time for help and can’t go? I mean obviously we would get it but it would suck, we need to have everyone there,” said anonymous.
This schedule does not however account for the students with no club activities or have their work completed.
“In looking at how best we could serve students, we’re always looking at our bell schedule trying to figure out what we can do best to meet our kids needs,” said Stephen Mares, principal.