Beginning March 6, students at this school will be attending classes on an extended schedule. According to Superintendent Nicholas Wahl, the new schedule will require students to be present at 7:45 a.m. and leave school later at 3:20 p.m.

Wahl said, “The State Board of Education indicated that they were going to allow increased instructional time as an option to make up for the lost instructional time because of the extreme weather, so we put together a proposal where we extend the instructional day for 54 days, March 6 through the end of the school year … the Department of Education says that is right on target.”

Senior TJ Hathaway said he prefers the new schedule to staying an extra three days after school was originally scheduled to end (May 29).

“I like the new schedule because I was already going to go on vacation as soon as school let out. If we had to stay after into the next week I wouldn’t be able to go,” Hathaway said.

Wahl said the decision to implement the extended schedule stemmed from a combination of responses from students, teachers and administrators.

“I brought the teacher association representatives in as soon as we found out there was an option. I didn’t find any group—students, parents, teachers or administrators—interested in going (to school) in June. It became apparent that everyone had an interest in taking care of it now. One, you guys would be going to school after graduation. Two, we have standardized tests and AP exams, and we want to increase instructional time before them. Three, we are concerned about the attendance rate in June as well because people have plans to leave.”

Wahl also said that there was an explanation for why school would start five minutes early rather than just end 20 minutes later.

“We had to align all the bus schedules for elementary, middle school and high school,” Wahl said. “We also need to be sensitive to all those students in extracurricular activities if we increase time after school. Some of the students I talked to said ‘if we go any further we’re going to be doing homework at midnight.’”