In the beginning of the school year, students were confronted with the new school schedule. The administration announced that there would not be North Time but instead, Academic Support Time Monday through Thursday.

According to Principal Tyson Ostroski, keeping AST was the prime concern. Having it four times a day would give opportunities for students to ask teachers more often.

“It was a priority for us to try to get AST Monday through Thursday. Even though it’s half an hour, it still gives you more opportunities to get with teachers throughout the week, rather than just those two days that we had,” Ostroski said.

Ostroski also mentioned that to meet the time required by the state, North Time will be permanently taken away for the rest of the year.  

 “While North Time did go away, we put that time back into classes on Fridays, and that was due to instructional minutes being held to a certain time frame of how many minutes from the state, so that was necessary for us to do that.” Ostroski said. “It [North Time] won’t be coming back in the foreseeable future, but again, I think the four days of academic support time is a huge help.” 

The policy regarding North Time and the new schedule has left some teachers and students with mixed feelings. 

Science teacher Kiah Kollman preferred having North Time every day since it was easier for students to ask teachers for help. 

 “If it were an option and there were no rules and no state mandates, I would prefer North time every day because I think the past system sometimes made it hard because students forgot to get a pass and then they’re running to get a pass, so it would be nice to be able to just go visit teachers when they need to without it,” Kollman said. 

According to Kollman, some students were not happy with how North Time was used last year, and she believes it was because it lacked structure. 

“I heard a lot of students’ feedback was that they didn’t love North Time because it was so unstructured and people would get stressed out and didn’t have anywhere to go,” Kollman said.

Kollman believes that if the school had implemented the rules in the beginning of last year, instead of later, the problems the students faced would have been less of an issue. 

“We were so focused on the trauma that COVID-19 created in students and just extending lots of grace and understanding that everybody is handling COVID-19 in different ways,” Kollman said. “I think as a result, some of our structures got lost, so the safety and discipline measures kind of took the backseat,” Kollman said. “We tried to make changes in the middle of the school year, and I think having those structures in place from day one would have helped last year.”

Junior Max Masilionis was not exactly fond of North Time last year, but he hoped that there would be some way for students to talk with friends other than passing periods. 

“I will say that despite some of the problems of just letting a bunch of high schoolers walk around and do stuff, I do think there should be some discussion about how to provide that free time because the most that a lot of people have with their friends is passing period and five minutes isn’t the same as eating lunch,” Masilionis said. 

However, it is not to say that this year’s schedule does not come with benefits. The late arrivals on Tuesdays and Thursdays allow teachers to spend more time in their meetings before the start of school. 

  “I like that the later rival is moved back a little bit because it allows teachers more time in their PLC meetings in the mornings last year. When we started school at 8:25 that was not enough time for us to get done what we needed,” Kollman said. 

Not only do late arrivals benefit teachers, but for students who wake up early, it allows them to get other businesses taken care of before school starts. 

 “I wake up early so having to wake up and not having to go to school immediately on a few of those days, is kind of refreshing and it gives me time to relax and do things before school,” Masilionis said. 

Whether students prefer this change, the schedule seems very unlikely to change this school year. However, the administration is working to provide the best experience for the students. 

“The district is going through a high school study, essentially looking at different districts across the country and their bell schedules as well as different possibilities that could be more applicable to our students here in Blue Valley,” Ostroski said.