Starting after spring break, the lunch shifts on blocked days will change from four lunch shifts to three. 

Before the pandemic there were three lunch shifts every day. However, when full day in person school started back up, the number of lunch shifts moved from three to four so students would be more spread out. Assistant principal Thomas Potteiger said that the only reason there was four lunch shifts instead of the normal three was to spread students out, and that since the numbers had been falling, Pottieger said that the school was looking to go back to three lunch shifts as everything was functioning well on A days, where there were already three lunch shifts. 

“With the numbers going down we decided to go back to three lunches and it’s working for A days as well so it was really just making them all align with each other,” Potteiger said. 

Potteiger said that originally they had wanted to make the change at the semester break, but because of the COVID-19 numbers at the time it was pushed back until after spring break. 

“We thought about [changing it] after coming back from the first semester but the numbers were still pretty high so we wanted to wait until those kind of went down. And spring break seemed like a nice breaking point in the school year, instead of waiting until next year,” Potteiger said.  

Language arts teacher Cindy Golden said that she is looking forward to the new lunch schedule as it would permit everyone not to eat so early in the day. 

“I am actually excited about going down to three lunch shifts. It will allow students a little longer in the day to eat lunch. 10 a.m. seems like breakfast, especially for a high school student,” Golden said. 

Similar to Golden, Potteiger said that one of the main benefits of going down to three lunch shifts would be the ability to move the first lunch back. 

“The first lunch shift won’t be at 10 a.m. anymore so as far as students go lunch will just be moved back a little bit. The first one won’t be so early, that’s probably the biggest [benefit],” Potteiger said. 

Freshman Taivionna Valiant said that she does not like the lunch schedule changing. Valiant said she was worried about the spread of COVID-19 with the increased number of students in each lunch shift. 

“I think it’s kind of a bad idea because the cafeteria can get really crowded,” Valiant said, “You can’t eat with masks and everyone is surrounding. I think it’s more of a risk because you can’t eat with your mask on.”

As far as lesson plans go and the change in the lunch schedule, Golden said that going down to three lunch shifts may cause some adjustments, but that she did not anticipate this being too much of a problem. 

“Sometimes having a split lunch shift does adjust your lesson plans. For instance, if you are giving a test, you have to figure out the best placement for the test.  With four lunch shifts, it was easier to send students to a different lunch shift if needed.  With only three, teachers will probably have to switch with another teacher if they need to in order to administer a test,” Golden said, “As teachers we are pretty flexible, and time isn’t being taken away from instruction, so we should be fine.”