Following the approval of Office Hours schedule last June, Mira Costa administration intended to incorporate the Office Hour schedule to help reduce student stress. However, Costa administration has started to exploit these days that are already on shortened class periods by incorporating school-wide events during class time on Office Hours days.
The administration originally planned the Office Hour schedule, implemented this September, to provide students and faculty members two sections of collaboration time every Wednesday of a full school week. The original purpose of Office Hours was for students to make up work and get help from their teachers, Costa Principal Dr. Ben Dale said.
The bomb threat drill on Feb. 3 took place on an Office Hours day, only allowing a couple of minutes for first and second period. Events such as Homecoming Pep Rally also took away valuable class time, cutting 20 minutes from every class period.
Planning school-wide events, such as pep rallies and assemblies, during Office Hour days leaves students at a large disadvantage, since they lose significantly more class time than they ordinarily would on a normal Office Hours day.
According to history teacher Steve Singiser, on Office Hours days, he has to increase the workload on Tuesdays in order to keep up with the schedule. This leaves teachers’ lesson plans to be affected in the long term since, on these days, they have to find alternative ways to get through course material due to the smaller allocation of class time.
According to Associated Student Body President and senior Hanna Watkins, since school-wide events have to be on Wednesdays, there is less school spirit displayed in the events. For example, the delivery of Val Grams had less student excitement since it took place four days before Valentine’s Day, according to Watkins, and, in effect, lessened student involvement. These condensed schedules on Wednesdays not only lessen the amount of time students are given in the classroom, but also decreases the enthusiasm for school traditions.
According to Vice Principal Deborah Hofreiter, incorporating school-wide events into the Office Hours schedule provides consistency for teachers since they will know well in advance not to schedule major assessments on these days. Although this plan provides teachers with consistency when scheduling exams, it makes class periods ineffective by taking away already limited class time.
The exploitation of class time during the Office Hours schedule for school-wide events hinders student ability to fully maximize the benefits of Office Hours and impedes class productivity.
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