Can’t hear the students over the bells
There are a lot of changes coming to the NPHS bell schedule next year, and student input and awareness has been lacking. To start, there will no longer be late start days, which will be replaced with minimum days. A lot of people have different opinions on this, but a majority of the people we talked with were even aware of this schedule change. It is alarming that a change that directly impacts the entire student body has little to no student involvement. Indeed, not everything the district does needs to have student input, but when these changes directly impact students, it would make a lot more sense for the board/union/whoever to actually consult the people who it affects.
One of the largest consequences of the schedule change is that students who have a fifth period will have to wait until 2:15 for their class because teachers and faculty will be in collaboration meetings right after school until then on minimum days when school ends at. What will students do between 12:40 and 2:15 if they can’t drive? Are they to remain on campus for an hour and a half? If that is the case, it does not seem fair to the students who will have to spend a lot of extra time at school. Again, the district did not hear or listen to those students who will be negatively impacted by the schedule change.
It is not just the schedule that the board is changing, and not all of the changes are bad, because the graduation requirements will change for the current eighth graders, as they will not have to have to take PE in ninth grade if they receive their credits elsewhere. But the problem is not the changes, but the lack of student input and awareness.
Though these issues are a major problem, the whole system is the problem, as the district does not seem to heed advice given by students and teachers, arguably the most important aspect of the schedule change is the lack of student voice and awareness, as not only where students voices not heard, but to a large number of students they were not aware of this change in the first place, which is almost more alarming.
