Mr. Fishback discusses PSAT scores with students during their 30 extra minutes on Fridays. Photo by: Brittine Martin
By Brittine Martin
On Friday, March 7, Plymouth High School extended the school day from 2:45 to 3:15, but they did not add the 30 minutes to the end of the day; they did something different.
Schools are changing how they do their make up days due to the winter wonderland that Indiana endured this winter. They are making up these missed days in various ways. There are schools making up days on spring break, starting early and going extra hours everyday, going to the end of the school year into summer and doing online classes. On Fridays, Plymouth students went until 2:45 instead of 3:15, like a regular school day, but not as of March 7. PHS decided to add 30 minutes to one class and rotate it to a different class each week to follow.
Sophomore Anya Hettich sees how to increase her PSAT scores and prepare for the SAT. Photo by: Brittine Martin
Students throughout the school had different thoughts on this change. Sophomore Elizabeth Gallardo stated, “I really don’t mind staying an extra 30 minutes after school as long as we don’t have to make it up during the summer.” Sophomore Courtney Keller had a contrasting thought, “I don’t think it is cool at all and I’d rather go another day in the summer.” To count, the 30 extra minutes are supposed to be instructional; individual classes did different things. Freshman Emory Smith said, “In English, my first period, we went to the library and read during our extra time.” Freshman Kyra Andrzejewski said, “We were working on a project that was due that Monday.” Individual students agreed adding on the 30 minutes to one class benefitted them while others did not. “I got more work done than I should’ve,” stated Freshman Leonardo Baca, but Freshman Daniel Vegso said, “The longer class does not benefit me because after an hour of the same class I started losing focus in the 30+ min that followed.”
Students also had thoughts on whether or not it benefitted students as a whole. Freshman Michaela Meadors said, “No because it just makes students not want to do their work because of all the extra work that we have to do. The fact that all of these [Fridays] only make up ONE school day is kind of ridiculous. If I were in charge of the system I would just do the four make up days in June, it’s not that big of a deal honestly.” Some believed it is; Junior Jordan Kelly said, “It will probably be good though because kids will have extra time to get help.” Students had their own thoughts on it, but students like Freshman Kyra Andrzejewski said, “I don’t really like it but I would rather do extended [Fridays] then having to go extra days at the end of the year.”