This year South consolidated the number of lunches from three to two, creating unforeseen complications for students. The new schedule eliminated the former 2nd lunch which split fourth hour into two 25 minute segments for students who had it.
This decision was made for two reasons. The first being the student body losing about five-hundred students compared to last year. Because of this, the school assumed that three lunches would no longer be needed. The second reason was that many teachers were unhappy having their classes interrupted by the transitions to and from second lunch. Having to pause class for second lunch not only cut into teaching time, but also gave students more opportunity to be late to or skip class.
Humanities teacher Macy Ashby noted, “The extra transitions we had to do with second lunch really cut into my teaching time. I had some students leaving my class early to go to lunch and coming back late, and students even skipped the second half of class.”
Although this new schedule has somewhat reduced the number of students skipping fourth hour, it really amplified the problem of overcrowding during lunches.
“Overcrowding during lunches has been an issue for a while. To compensate, South allows all grade levels to go off campus for lunch because we don’t have enough room to accommodate every student in the lunchroom,” noted South Dean Alex Endeshaw. This problem has been further amplified because school lunches are free this year. More students are able to get school lunch this year, which means longer lines and waits, giving students less time to eat.
A possible solution for these problems could be to extend lunches by 10 minutes each. This change would allow students to have enough time to eat lunch while maintaining the benefits of a 2 lunch schedule. Since there would still be a 10 minute break between lunches, deans wouldn’t have to deal with the chaos of getting the first lunch to leave while the second lunch rolls in. Additionally, more students may be able to leave campus for lunch with this extended time, which could make the lines for lunch even smaller.
