The Class of 2017 was subject to many changes through their years of high school, from the lunches during their senior year, the Algebra EOC during their sophomore year, and many more. It left the Class of 2017 constantly on their toes, having to adjust to the various changes that went into effect right as it was relevant to them.
The major and most widely discussed change is the switch from three lunch periods to two. Rumors spread like wildfire through the halls about why they made the switch. It turns out that, because teachers and administrators are in charge of supervising the rowdy periods, having nearly half of the day dedicated to that is quite unfortunate.
“When we go down to the two lunch periods, you only have to supervise those two hours, so teachers aren’t as split up in three hours of trying to help,” said Principal Kelly King.
The new parking lot was not only a new change for the seniors, but an additional reason for the lunches being shortened.
“That lot requires more supervision before and after school, so the people available to supervise during lunches are limited. We now have lost six people that are unavailable in the morning and afternoon, times two because of both semesters. That’s 12 less people that help supervise,”said King.
In short, there are too few hands to aid in keeping the students under watch, hands that are already tied with their main job of teaching.
Another change was when the Algebra EOC changed into the FSA, which definitely changed a few things for the teachers’ curriculum and also left students stressed over a brand new test that they would have to take.
“They did add probability and statistics that didn’t use to be in Algebra 2. They also added trigonometry because of Common Core changing. Now we have more to teach and less time to do it,” said math teacher Kristina Gamez.
The new test involved different ways of answering questions which forced teachers to have to teach their students simply how to take the exam before being able to dive into the actual mathematics.
“Whether or not this change was a good or bad impact on students’ scores in the long run is up in the air,” said math teacher Ruth Medveczky.
Over the summer, a lot of students were irritated that their beloved summer days had around three weeks shaved off. The Class of 2017, celebrating their final summer of high school, were very cranky to arrive back to school in early August.
“Several years back the state legislature had passed a law that schools could not start until a certain day,” said King.
The reasoning behind the decision was chalked up to tourism and college applications. The tourism industry didn’t want all of the students to be in school during their “summer months”, which would take away their target market, as well as sapping potential jobs in the hotel and theme park industry.
Although many seniors were set on despising the change, it was actually done for their benefit. Because of how late school started for past seniors, many were scrambling to fill out college applications. Early admission decisions ended up being not so early.
Strangely, administration is not responsible for all of these changes that have happened at Steinbrenner, so it’s hard to say with certainty what will stay and what will be altered again. What is clear is that the Class of 2017 was subject to many changes, and whether or not they were for the better or worse remains to be seen.
Hannah Makholm// Head of Graphics
