High school works to get Steel Center students to class on time with start time change
Senior Jason Depretis said the late arrivals would affect students who have academic classes that period.“Coming back late does not affect me because I have study hall, but I’m sure it affects people who have honors or AP classes fourth period,” Depretis said.
October 10, 2018
One of the lingering problems with the school day starting 10 minutes earlier this year has been that students coming from Steel Center have been late to fourth period every day.
After working on the problem with Steel Center officials, Principal Dr. Walter Graves said, “Steel Center students should not be as late to that class as they were at the start of the year, though it seems unlikely that the situation will be completely resolved this school year.”
The school day starts 10 minutes earlier this year than in previous years, primarily to eliminate the 10 minutes that students had stood waiting in the gym hallway before being released to first period. That change created a conflict with the Steel Center schedule; however, Steel Center’s schedule did not change.
Graves said that at first he was able to get the Baldwin buses to leave Steel Center, before the buses from other districts. But that did not make much of an impact on the time for students to get back to Baldwin, he said.
The problem is that Steel Center cannot let Baldwin students leave 10 minutes early, because some of the programs award certifications based on a designated amount of time a student logs.
“After talking to the people at Steel Center, they found a two-minute window where Baldwin students could leave early and still acquire the proper amount of time for their certification,” Graves said.
The Baldwin buses are positioned in the front of the line, so as soon as a bus is full it can leave Steel Center to get back to Baldwin, Graves said.
Next year, Baldwin will try to schedule Steel Center students for lunch fourth period, so any late arrival would affect homeroom rather than a class. For this year, Graves said he hopes the changes that have been made will reduce the tardy time to no more than five minutes.
Senior Jason Depretis said the late arrivals would affect students who have academic classes that period.
“Coming back late does not affect me because I have study hall, but I’m sure it affects people who have honors or AP classes fourth period,” Depretis said.
