One of the biggest changes this year has been the relocation of the language classes, including relocation of the Spanish hallway from beside the special needs hall, upstairs on the second floor of the building. Since this change, there have been numerous of students finding themselves late either arriving to or from their Spanish class.

The first week, luckily, tardies don’t count, as students are still getting the hang of their new classes and schedules, some still continuing to change still, but it leads to the concern of what happens when the tardies do begin to count. How many students will be receiving tardies and become ineligible for exemptions at the end of spring all due to this inconvenience of the new hallway?

Many students have already expressed their concern, claiming that for students who are trying to make it from one end of the school, such as the math and science halls, are unable to make it there on time because the five minute passing time is too short, due to the hectic halls between classes.

Along with students, much of the teacher staff located in the science and math halls, on the opposite side of the school, express many of the same concerns. Many claim that anywhere between 5-10 percent of their students from their classes have been arriving late to each of their classes daily.

On the other hand, some teachers claim that the problem is not the hall, but the students in the hall, horsing around and not focused on getting to class, but more so on chatting with fellow classmates and friends. But even with students talking to friends, this should not affect their timing to class as students are taught from elementary school to multi-task.

For many students, the passing period between classes is the only time that they have time to talk to friends between classes, an action they can do as they walk to their next classes, Unfortunately, with the new arrangement of the Spanish hall, students are unable to have this time, instead they are having to shove their way through the halls, racing to hopefully make it to chemistry or calculus.

An easy and effective solution to this passing period problem would simply be for teachers who are located in the far corridors of the school or in the Spanish hall, to add an extra minute to their tardy bells, allowing students plenty of time to get to class. If students arrive after that extra minute, then teachers could send them away for tardies.This ensures that each student has enough time to make it to class without having the worry of being tardy.

Tardies affect everything, from attendance to spring exemptions, and having so many students tardy is a problem that can be simply solved by teachers in certain locations being flexible on allowing students just an extra minute to make it to class.