Friday marks the first day that Oshkosh North will follow a revised schedule, due to inclement weather, for the remaining 2018-2019 school year. As many already know, the Oshkosh Area School District has made the decision to add thirteen minutes to the school day (see bell schedule), added to the additional three extra minutes from the start of the year. On top of the extra minutes, the early release days for the month of March and April, with the potential to take away the May 8th early release with the cancellation of a future day, are now full-length schedules ending at 3:46. While the Midwest is no stranger to school cancellations, this year has had an unusually high number of days missed for Fox Valley students (5, in counting), which affected schools have to compensate for in order to reach the required amount of instructional minutes.

In the past, schools have made up these days by extending into summer vacation, however, with complications revolving around summer school and teacher contracts, this was not the most practical option. Other possible alternatives that could’ve been considered included a shortened spring break, going to school on Saturdays, and logging into Chromebooks during a snow-day to make up for the instructional time that was lost, Neenah school district practiced the later. Social studies teacher Steve Danza would’ve liked to see a shortened spring vacation, “I personally would have loved to change spring break, but I understand that would’ve been difficult with some commitments that faculty and parents have planned vacations,” said Danza.

A different view of a potential solution was proposed by a student at North. Senior Hailey Gess believes that the Excel period should’ve been considered. “I think that they should have taken out Excel instead of adding the thirteen minutes on to the day,” said Gess.

As for Oshkosh High Schools, the decision to extend the school day caused mix reactions with the staff and students here at North. Many of the students agree that the additional minutes make it difficult for the people that work to arrive there on time.  “(The minutes hurt) the people who have to work at four,” said junior Ron Schmidt. Freshmen  Ian Sabai added, “I have to work at four on Friday and it’s not going to be fun, but I can’t get my schedule changed for two weeks.”

Additionally, staff believes that the minutes will reach the necessary number of minutes, but fail to accommodate missed lesson plans.

Teacher Angela Rodriguez agrees that the additional minutes won’t influence the amount taught in the classroom, “I think that it meets the obligations for minutes that we have throughout the year, but as a teacher it’s hard for us to make up whole lessons when it’s only two minutes at a time” said Rodriguez.

Despite the criticism, the new schedule change will proceed accordingly throughout the remaining school year, with the new dismissal time being 3:46 pm.