This year at Mead High School, the schedule is different from last year. Last year, the everyday schedule consisted of ninety minute classes with a fifteen minute breakfast break between the first and second class, two more classes, a forty minute lunch, then one more class. Then, on Fridays only, the schedule was switched around with an hour long advisory class.

This year, Mead has seventy-five minute classes, with a thirty minute “Mav 30” class after the first two classes, a forty-five minute lunch, then the last two classes after lunch. Thoughts on this new schedule vary according to students at Mead High School.

When talking to Principal Ayers, she felt strongly about the new schedule being a change for the better. She argued that, since we have such an early lunch, lines at our local restaurants are shorter and it’s easier and quicker for us to get our lunch, eat, and get back to school on time.

She also argued that there are much better attendance rates this year—rates for last block and Mav 30 in particular have most definitely seen positive spikes.

Principal Ayers also mentioned that she has been working hard to change the start time to 7:30 or 7:45, as even just fifteen minutes could make a huge difference for students to get a bit more sleep.

When asking Makayla Mazzotta, a senior, how she felt about this year’s schedule in comparison to last year, she said, “It’s not too bad, but the only thing I don’t like about it is advisory seems like it’s just a waste of time, like we don’t do anything in it and even though I’m in Mav Nation, we still don’t do a lot.” Mazzotta was asked what she would do if she had the ability to change anything about the current schedule and she responded with, “I would have kept the schedule we had last year and just have one class after lunch, because two makes it feel like the day drags out even longer.”

While talking with junior Maddi Daub, she commented, “Compared to last year, I actually liked that lunch is earlier because I don’t get hungry throughout the day like I did last year.” As the conversation veered to discussing our new advisory, Mav 30, Daub held nothing back stating, “I still feel like advisory is pointless because I would like to use it as a study hall that would actually benefit me instead of playing games and answering questions about myself, which doesn’t really benefit me at all.”

Senior Sophie Jones agreed with Daub that the new schedule had some positive changes saying, “I like the new schedule because the classes are a little bit shorter and it really makes a difference. I also like how we have lunch halfway through the day so that by the time I’m getting hungry, we have lunch.”

However, Jones strayed from Daub with her beliefs surrounding the new Mav 30 class. She thinks that the change in advisory from last year to this year was a good thing saying, “I like how it’s so much shorter than last year, so even when I don’t feel like going, it’s just one short class, then lunch. I think it’s nice when we have classes that we can do homework and go get help from teachers, so we don’t have to get help after school.”

According to the students of Mead, the 2018-2019 school year schedule definitely has its advantages with a few downfalls, as expected. Most students seem to like having an early lunch because they don’t need to worry about getting hungry before lunch has started. But, with that, comes more classes after lunch, which makes the day drag on.

And, although some students seem to think Mav 30 is still pointless, others feel that this year they’ve made it much more bearable, and even helpful.

The schedule has some modifications each year, but it seems that admin is getting closer and closer to finding the perfect schedule for Mead High School.