For the 2013-2014 school year, the administration proposed a new bell schedule to central office and was approved. That decision affected both students and teachers as a whole. This year, the bell to dismiss students to their classrooms rings at 7:17 a.m., and classes begin at 7:23 a.m. School ends at a time 10 minutes later than last year, and Falcon Hour has been shortened to 47 minutes, plus a four-minute passing period before and after.

While approving this new schedule, the administrators failed to realize how unrealistic it is. Yes, we will have longer classes thus giving students more instruction time, but those 17 minutes taken from Falcon Hour mean a great deal to everyone. It reduces our time for eating, clubs, and working on projects or tests that need to be done for a class.

Last year was when Falcon Hour was first established, and it was proven to be a very effective and efficient system. With the new changes to Falcon Hour, students are no longer given the amount of time that is essential to complete tasks when they’re not in class.

I understand we should appreciate that we have it in the first place, but I believe people forget the reasoning for Falcon Hour. It was originally given to the students as a time for everyone to eat, visit teachers to fix their grades, have time for clubs, rehearsals for performances or competitions and to just relax. These concepts matter to both students and teachers.

When grade-level meetings take place during Falcon Hour, the students of that graduating class only have about 10 to 15 minutes to stand in line, get their lunch and eat before going to the meeting. Food is not permitted in the PAC and many classes, so these students are not able to eat without being kept in the hallways outside of classrooms after third period begins.

I was in a club last year, and we had plenty of time to accomplish what needed to be done, and we would still have 30 minutes left. Even if you needed to visit a teacher to raise your grade, you had enough time to get lunch and complete homework. But now that we have less time to do these things, it’s a real struggle. Teachers have to watch students during half of the hour, so that leaves even less time for students to work with the teachers and for teachers to supervise clubs.

Earlier this month, juniors Grace Carlson and Lucas Lostroh constructed a petition to extend the time of Falcon Hour. Junior Brandon Losh said that assistant principle Fred Bouchard agreed the petition was to be significant and said that if enough signatures were gathered, changes will be made. When gathering signatures, Losh informed the students that if the petition were approved, these changes wouldn’t occur until second semester or next school year. But I believe the changes should be made by next semester because our seniors deserve this improvement.

I am very proud of my peers who took the initiative, which we’ve been taught since kindergarten, because they believed they could make a change. Falcon Hour is a crucial part of our learning, and I feel it should be treated that way.