High school will add five minutes next year

There is yet another change coming to the Cedar Falls High School schedule next year, and it has to do with the length of the school day.

During the 2014-2015 school year, the school days will be five minutes longer. This change is coming because with all of the late starts and early outs, some of the schools in the district could not meet the standard amount of days in the school year for the state. The high school is in fact the only school in the district that could meet the minimum requirement. Because of this, the other schools in the district will see an increase of 10 minutes instead of only five. The added time will see an increase of CFHS students’ day from six hours and 55 minutes to seven hours, and the teachers’ work day will see an increase from seven hours and 50 minutes to eight hours.

Because of the increase in time, another minute will be added on to every class, bringing up total class time to 45 minutes. Since there are eight periods, time must be taken away from somewhere, so early plans are to decrease time across the three lunch shifts. It is likely the high school will start at the same time, 7:50, and simply add the five minutes to the end of the day.

CFHS Principal Dr. Rich Powers agreed with the change.

“I think that the teachers would like longer class periods because they can cover more materials throughout the year,” Powers said. “Because of this, I believe that students will benefit as well.”

Late start Mondays did play a role in the addition of the minutes. Because of the lost time, the school needed to get some minutes back to meet minimum requirements met by the state. School officials are not yet sure on whether or not the additional minutes will affect the late start time for next year.

Junior Hiram Marquez said that he is OK with the change.

“Adding one minute per class won’t feel like too much of a change,” Marquez said. “It should help us to better get our education, which is our main goal in school.”