Every year, NASH experiences a huge amount of change. The seniors’ exit alone calls for a replacement of half the student body as last year’s sophomores enter their junior year. Unavoidably, it changes the dynamic of the building as students adjust to the new building, new teachers, and a new grade level.
However, there are several other small changes made to the school day year-by-year and month-by-month, as school administration as well as the school board work to improve the quality of education for NASH students.
Next year, one larger change being made to the overall flow of the school day is the reduction of time at school by five minutes.
Next year, instead of a 7:23 school start time, the bell indicating the start of first period will ring at 7:28. School will still end at the same time, but homeroom will be shortened by five minutes to accommodate the later start.
NASH Principal Mr. Buchak explained that the reasoning behind changing the school start time is an attempt to better student sleep time.
“A handful of years ago, North Allegheny conducted a study to determine an adjusted start time,” Buchak said. “Through that study, systemic factors were identified including lack of sleep, homework, weighted grades, and testing. Multiple factors were examined, and the cost analysis involving busing, additional staff, food service, after school programs, and athletic scheduling influenced the decision to be discussed at a later date.”
Despite this conflict, the administration still wanted to find some sort of middle ground. So, they picked up the conversation again.
“Starting school later has been discussed and brainstormed more and more, and over the past couple months, the District decided to adjust start times,” Buchak said.
The decision was to implement a five-minute decrease in the school day, which, hopefully, will improve sleep time by a bit, or, at least make the school day feel faster.
Despite these intentions, NASH students seem to be confused or concerned about the change.
“I’m confused why it’s getting changed. I feel like it doesn’t help sleep time too much and there will be even more traffic on the road,” Lainey Erskine, a NASH junior, said.
NASH junior Dani Hinkson added, “I wish they would’ve taken out a few minutes from each class period instead of removing time from homeroom. Homeroom is a really helpful section of time to hear the announcements, see teachers, or catch up on homework – especially if you don’t have a study hall.”
The school administration is hearing these worries.
“One of the concerns we want to address is figuring out a way to incorporate our student programming like the morning announcements outside of the new allotted five minutes of homeroom.”
Buchak said that they are currently reviewing ideas on how to make student programming, art, and participation increase despite the shortened morning announcements.
Additionally, multiple students have expressed gratitude for the implementation of activity periods, hoping this added time can make up for the loss of half of homeroom.
“The activity periods have shown to be beneficial, and we plan on incorporating more,” Buchak said.
Despite the concerns from students, the school has been working behind the scenes to improve sleep quality in more areas than we realize.
“Last year, our earliest bus pick-up time was 5:45. This year, we’ve been able to move that up to 6:15,” Buchak said. “This is due to our incredible Transportation Department, but it is definitely another area we use to improve sleep quality.”
The school administration has expressed a desire to continue to work for and with students in regard to this upcoming change.
“We want to hear feedback,” Buchak said. “We hope to improve sleep time, the beautification of our school, and student engagement in the upcoming school year.”
