As a result of several days of canceled school due to inclement weather and a high number of flu cases, Edmond Public Schools decided to update the schedule, adding 10 more minutes of learning to each school day. For high schools, first hour will begin five minutes earlier, and sixth hour will end five minutes later. In turn, all classes will be affected. Some will start or end five minutes earlier or later., and this change will continue until the end of the 2024-2025 school year, as the daily extra 10 minutes will eventually add up to the 1080 hours of school required by the state of Oklahoma. Although the change may be controversial, it is better than adding more full days of instruction to the school year.
The change is barely noticeable, as five extra minutes in a class is not enough to cover any missed lessons. However, the change has been controversial with many students at Edmond Memorial High School because it can cause disruptions in their previous schedule, at times causing them to be late to after-school activities. While these concerns are valid, the alternative to this schedule change would be adding more school days after the end of the year.
One of the biggest concerns is not arriving at school on time, which is a reasonable concern. Traffic jams can lengthen a student’s commute to school and with the new schedule, it could make them arrive late. Many students also wake up late, and school starting earlier could make five minutes of “snoozing” detrimental. However, most students already arrive at school at least 10 minutes before school starts, so chronic tardiness should not be much of an issue throughout the school.
This schedule change is certainly better than adding more days of instruction. For example, some students may have trips planned right after the end of the school year, which would have to be completely rescheduled in order to allow students to take finals. Currently, the school year is scheduled to end on May 21, and if the two extra days were added it would not make such a difference. However, if school has to be canceled again, more days would be added to the calendar, extending the school year to the end of May, and it could potentially interfere with final exams.
Overall, this change will not affect students’ daily lives very much. Although there are concerns about arriving to school or after-school activities on time, 10 minutes is not a long amount of time. It is not a drastic change, and students will likely become used to it within a week or two.
Contact Noelia Ocampo Resendiz at [email protected]