Even for how consistent a student is, nearly everyone eventually gets a tardy some time in their high school career. Tardies are simply a count of how many times people are late to class, and they affect one’s social probation, so it is very important for people who want to stay in extracurriculars to keep track of them. The Central Administration has been cracking down a lot on tardy statistics by comparing them to the grade statistics and how the two overlap to promote getting to class on time. One question in peoples’ minds is “Is the new policy actually helping with Central’s tardy problem?” because of how much it changes the standard method of Central.
On December 4th, an email was sent out revealing a new policy being used in the second semester. This change was a shift from the old tardy passes to a new clipboard method used to track tardy students school-wide. This new addition also brings a new change to the grace periods which is time after the first bell rings and after that time, a student not in class must report to the Maroon Mindset room where they can’t learn the new material in class.
With the new clipboard comes another new change that could be nearly as impactful as the clipboard. The email states, “Students arriving more than 5 minutes late after the passing bell rings will NOT be allowed to enter their classroom unless it is excused”, where it was 10 minutes before, shortening the grace period significantly. This change contains a small addition that states that the first hour has a 15 minute grace period, because of the difficulty many students face with their transportation to school, and getting to school too late. “The reason they put in the change was because people were abusing the ten minutes and five minutes is a perfect [amount of] time to clear the halls” said Mr. Lacy, a computer science and math teacher at Central.
The main group being affected by this change are the students and they seem to have found many pros and cons to the whole implementation. Some have become good at hiding their tardies by miming signing the clipboard, and not getting tardy. “I’m not sure what the clipboard is accomplishing, and maybe it’s helping somewhere in the system, but it doesn’t seem helpful for students,” said a student who chose to remain anonymous. With the shortened grace period, it made many students feel anxious and pressured to get to class, because of the low time to get to class after the bell.
The best redeeming quality for many students seems to be the extended grace period for the first hour. The main reason they made this change was because of how many students struggle fitting in the bus schedules to get to school. “As a student who uses the bus to get to school, I have been almost 30 minutes late to the first hour, because of how unpredictable the buses are,” said the same student.
This isn’t the first time Central has gone through a change in a tardy policy. One of the most impactful ones was the use of an app called “5-Star” which was a digital system Central used for mostly bathroom passes, checking into the school, and attendance. Central still tries to promote the app even after its removal from everyday life at the school by having posters when leaving saying, “STUDENTS MUST SIGN OUT OF 5STAR !”
The change from passes to a clipboard brought many unexpected changes for the teachers to track their tardy students. “The paper passes helped serve as a reminder for us to mark a student tardy, but with the clipboard, we need to remember to look back and mark the person tardy,” said Mrs. Krows, a biology teacher at Central. The change to a clipboard also helps students who are normally tardy because they don’t need to find a hall monitor to write a tardy pass for them and can just focus on getting to class. Teachers have also recognized this new pattern. “A larger percentage of students are coming on time, and the students who were super late are now less late,” said Mrs. Krows.
Many people are curious what prompted the admins to make this change, and what their goal was with this change. One of Central’s admins, Mr. Yacko gave insight into why they made this change and their goals with it. “We wanted this change to raise the bar higher for the students who are struggling with timeliness and give them a new goal, and most of those students have succeeded in this goal.” said Mr. Yacko.
Central’s new administration this year has led to many changes around the school which has left many to wonder,“what’s next?” Some of the most glaring examples of these changes would be the new metal detectors or the shock of the abolition of facial masks which have led many to speculate for the future. With how much our beloved school is changing, it is probably for the best to stay on our toes and anticipate what is to come.
