For the 2019-2020 school year at CHS, a new schedule was put into place.  The school start and end times were pushed back 30 minutes. This caused the school days to begin at 8:10 instead of the original time of 7:40, and end at 3:08 instead of 2:38.

The schedule change was moved for the students in hopes of increasing attendance rates, said Principal Mairi Scott-Aguirre.  The start time was pushed back after Scott-Aguirre supported it and advocated for it for three years prior to the change as well as having student support for it.  Scott-Aguirre talked about some of the reasons why she pushed for it. “There has been new research done saying that teenagers should not start school before 8:30. It shows results of higher grades in the first and last period of the day, that teenagers become more pleasant to live with and lower substance abuse rates,” she said.

Also some kids had a hard time getting to school since the busses picked them up super early and the later start time made it so the busses pick up the students a half hour later making it easier for them to get to school, she said.

Since the schedule was changed, there have been some benefits and drawbacks that have occurred.  Some benefits of it have been that first period attendance has improved, the halls are almost empty after first period starts which is a huge change from before the push back, she said.  Also the students and staff arrive closer to the same time allowing students to be able to receive help from their teachers before school starts. Before, teachers would get to school later than the students which gave them not a lot of time to get help.  Some drawbacks have been that staff and department meetings had to be rescheduled, the staff meets before school instead of after so the staff don’t get to take advantage of the extra thirty minutes. Also the bells were reprogrammed and during the first few weeks of school they were going off at incorrect times of the day.  

This schedule change has brought lots of benefits to the school as well as some things not going as planned.  The school is hoping that it will allow and encourage more students to attend school. Scott-Aguirre had some last comments on the push back.  “ I am grateful for the district to be able to support this needed change and I am looking forward to seeing how much this will affect the school in a positive way,” she said.