Beginning in the fall of 2022, California bill 328 will go into effect, requiring high schools to start no earlier than 8:30 a.m.. Although this change will likely have a negative effect on students’ extracurricular activities, it provides the opportunity for some much needed adjustments to the schedule.
School’s start and end times have been decided by the district, but The Nexus has come up with a few additional changes that we would like to see implemented in the 2022-2023 school year.
In a recent survey put out by Westview addressing the options for molding next year’s schedule, one suggestion was the opportunity to rearrange how much time per week is allocated for Homeroom, Wolverine Time and Silent Study Hall (SSH).
Though in many cases aimless, Homeroom does have its merits. The primary intention behind homeroom is so that students will have a group on campus to meet with that remains the same through the entirety of their four years, and a trusted adult to turn to if need be.
Homeroom is also a conduit for disseminating information from school administrators and ASB to the general population of students at Westview. That said, a similar effect could be achieved with the reduction of homeroom to two days a week, and students will get more time that is self-directed.
By and large, students benefit from direct access to their teachers, and Wolverine Time offers that in a way that Homeroom does not. On top of that, Wolverine Time would promote a positive culture on campus, as it allows the students to maintain more control over their education. Thus, three days of Wolverine Time would be more ideal than the two days we currently have.
Another change that The Nexus would like to see implemented would be the return of a weekly asynchronous day. After more than a year of virtual learning, students have gotten to experience academic freedom on levels which would have seemed unimaginable before. And for that reason, we want to see some autonomy placed back in the hands of students.
We understand that the absence of an asynchronous day is in part due to state legislations that mandates in-person instructional minutes, but the benefits of asynchronous learning are such that it is a worthy topic to pushed at the state level.
Asynchronous days ease the stress of going to school for students who struggle with anxiety, while simultaneously allowing students to catch up with their work in general. It also caters to students with non-traditional learning styles, as recorded lessons and remote assignments can be worked through at the pace of the individual student, and alternative learning methods can be used for them to more effectively retain information on their own time.
Moreover, asynchronous days integrate more variety into the school week, which is a refreshing and welcome change given that the way the school week is structured has remained the same for years. If there was one good thing to have come from the pandemic, it was the knowledge of our adaptabiliy, and propensity to innovate.
We are being presented with a rare opportunity to bring about change at Westview on a structural level, and it would be a shame if we didn’t make the most of it. We at The Nexus ask that school administration and district employees consider our suggestions.