By Michael Rosa
Staff Writer
School time in Howard County has changed more than once this school year . At the end of the 2022-2023 school year it was announced that high school’s would now start at 8:00 AM. The change only lasted a couple weeks due to bus issues all around Howard County. Recently Howard County has decided to change school time once again. A ten minute change to try and help solve the bus problems.
For Hammond High students in previous years would have to be in class by 7:25. Now with the new start time students should be in their class by 7:55 am. With this new time change it has given students more time to sleep in and get rest. On the contrary it has caused students who have after school activities to come home later than usual. It can be nice for both students and teachers to get that little extra time to sleep in or maybe finally eat some breakfast. Although there are multiple benefits from the new time change, there are also some negative ramifications as well. Having school around 8 am can cause a lot of traffic, leading to more late buses and complications with .
Students and teachers are slowly getting used to the new change and soon the problems we’re dealing with now shouldn’t affect us. As for now there are still late buses and problems with kids getting into school on time, but with the ten minute change in start times some of these problems have subsided. A student here at Hammond high reflects on how he doesn’t like the new time change. Senior Luis Carino sees the second new time change as a negative. “I have less time to prepare for school. The board… sold us a dream of being able to wake up later and have time to get ready. Now we have to adjust to a new start time all over again”. Although Luis is upset with the time change there are other students who are happy with it.
The positive of the new schedule change differs, not everyone is the same. Students may now have more time in their mornings to do homework or study before a test. Another student here at Hammond had positive things to say about the new time change. Yanni Magoulas is a senior here at Hammond who enjoys the new start as he gets more time to sleep. “With the new time start I get one to two hours of sleep compared to last year’s schedule”. Yanni is in the jumpstart program and enjoys coming into the building when the sun is out. “ It is really refreshing to wake up and get to school when it is sunny rather than dark out”. Just like Yanni, many students here at Hammond love the new time start this year.
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