Starting the school day 10 minutes earlier this year, a move designed to increase student safety, has led to issues with Steel Center students arriving late to fourth period each day as well as decreased cafeteria breakfast sales.
The school day starts 10 minutes earlier this year than in previous years, primarily to eliminate the 10 minutes that students previously had to stand around waiting in the gym hallway before being released to first period. But that change created a conflict with the Steel Center schedule, with Steel Center students arriving at Baldwin up to 10 minutes after fourth period had begun at the start of this year.
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 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 in class.
“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 sooner, Graves said.
Next year, Baldwin will try to schedule lunch for Steel Center students during for lunch fourth period, so any late arrival would affect homeroom rather than a class.
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.
Another effect of the earlier start time is lower breakfast sales.
In previous years, breakfast was served in the cafeteria, and students could sit down to eat, since they could order during that 10-minute holding time in the hallway. Now, however, the cafeteria has had to switch to selling food from a “grab and go” cart in the hallway.
“The loss of 10 minutes of time in the morning would not allow enough time for students to make it to the cafeteria and have time to eat their meal before leaving for class,” Food Service Director Joyce Weber said in an email interview.
She said breakfast sales are down due to the change, though sales have been picking up a bit recently.
“Students were not familiar with the grab and go concept at the beginning of the year, so participation was very low. Now that a month has passed, the students have started to understand that they could buy breakfast and take it to class,” Weber said.
Students now can select either a hot breakfast or cold breakfast bag and take it to their first period classroom.
“The paper bags provide a bag for students to place their waste items into and then properly dispose of that bag into a waste can,” Weber said.