Attention North Platte High School students, next semester you’ll need to set your alarms for 10 minutes earlier, because NPHS has a new start time. Due to a scheduling error that left the schedule 16 hours short of the state requirement for total instructional hours, the school day will now start at 8:20 a.m. and end at 3:30 p.m. This 20 minute increase in class time puts the school almost three days worth of time over the minimum. This will give the administration a little more freedom to call snow days.
Principal James Ayres credited the mistake to “human error.” When the schedule was proposed by the central administration to the school board, it was originally with a 3:27 p.m. end time. Having the extra seven minutes may not seem like a big deal, but that would be the difference between a schedule that meets requirements and one that doesn’t. Somewhere in the process, the end time got switched to 3:20, but no days were added in, leaving the school short in hours.
Changing the bell schedule may seem like an easy fix, but several sides had to come together to work out the new hours. First, District Business Manager Stuart Simpson, proposed four new options. Each option kept the 8:30 a.m. start time, but added 15, 20, 24, and 27 minutes to the end of the day respectively. “The Superintendent’s Advisory Council deserves a lot of credit, for our new schedule,” Ayres said. Simpson, Ayres, and Superintendent Ron Hanson brought the options to the student panel, and they proposed a potential fifth option: 8:20 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
The students wanted a schedule where the start time would correctly accommodate the before-school activity practices, while also being considerate of students who have to pick up siblings after school or get to work. Teacher help for students was also a factor. With the new system of meetings, coming in before school hasn’t been a viable option, so the students wanted a schedule that could fit a little time for help between school’s release and practices.
“The 8:20-3:30 schedule was the option that the most wanted. It was fair on both ends, and it was nice to just add a little at the start and a little on the end,” Ayres said. He was also quick to point out that this bell schedule will not necessarily be the bell schedule for the 2017-2018 school year. “We’ll look at the schedule and consider the options for next year and figure it out from there,” he said. It may be a little harder to get up next semester, but a little adjustment goes a long way in helping meet the requirements and keeping North Platte right in the eyes of the state department of educators.