The addition of a homeroom period would cut down on important instruction time

This article is part of a PRO/CON opinion piece on the addition of a homeroom period to Mira Costa’s schedule. To view the opposing side, see here.

Eric Zheng
Staff Writer

Mira Costa plans to implement a new bell schedule that includes a 24-minute homeroom period that meets once a week. The goal is to reduce class time teachers lose by participating in school activities. However, the benefits will be minimal and the period will waste precious class time. This plan should be abandoned.

Theoretically, the homeroom schedule provides a place and time for all students to handle miscellaneous school business and to have a homeroom teacher with whom they can bond. Common activities would include elections for Prom or Homecoming, club meetings, making up missed tests or assignments, receiving flyers or scheduling classes with educational advisors. Such activities do not warrant a new schedule at the expense of class time.

Under the proposed schedule, the 24-minute homeroom period will waste 31 minutes of class time the day it is held, totaling in almost four full days of instruction time taken from the school year. Although it manages to waste a great deal of instructional time, the homeroom period does not give sufficient time for many planned activities.

Most make-up tests that students take cannot be completed in the 24 minutes which the period allows. Other activities, such as four-year class planning, scheduling, and large assemblies are also not possible, especially after the homeroom teachers will have marked attendance.

In addition, the homeroom period would make it difficult for teachers to administer tests on the day homeroom meets, due to shortened periods.

Aside from the time constraints and the awkward schedule, the integrity of a homeroom class will be difficult to uphold. Many students will see the period as a perfect opportunity to leave school, forcing attendance and grades to be recorded at the detriment of many students’ GPA’s.

The possibility of having clubs meet during homeroom is also improbable. Most teachers would be in class, making it difficult to confirm that students are actually going to clubs. If a policy involving clubs meeting during homeroom is used, the effect would be chaotic, with students having over an hour each day of non-instruction time when homeroom time is combined with free time given during snack and lunch.

Hypothetically, homeroom would give all students and staff a specific time to efficiently handle all mandatory school activities, but realistically it would be a major misuse of time.

The proposed policy would be too difficult to put in place and would present a steep adjustment curve for everyone on campus. The best alternative would be no action or to utilize extended lunches for business such as PLAN and PSAT registration. Extended lunches reduce passing periods and wasted time, but the planned homeroom period does not.

Last year, Mira Costa did not have one full, uninterrupted week of school until November due to meetings of WASC and other interruptions, but the misappropriation of time caused by the proposed homeroom policy will continue where WASC left off and waste even more time.