Students sit in Mr. Varela’s class during homeroom on September 4. Photo by Nico Jordan
By Nico Jordan, Jaida Cooper Parish and Isong Eshiet
A new year has started at Riverside, and with it comes changes to the lunch schedule.
Starting this year, every student has a homeroom that they will attend during Pirate Block on Wednesday. Classes are set according to students’ grade level last name.
Originally, students’ schedules said that their homeroom would be their second-period class, similar to previous years. This was incorrect, and Riverside’s administrative team worked to fix it, but on August 26, students were again given the wrong class for homeroom.
According to Kelly Newsome, Riverside’s teaching and learning coach, an issue with PowerSchool caused the problem.
“We caught the issue, unfortunately a little too late and we have since rectified it,” Newsome said. “Last week, when we were trying to print schedules there was an issue with that completely out of anybody’s hands but we did the best that we could to get things situated.”
Newsome said the purpose of homeroom this school year is to provide students with grade level appropriate materials. Juniors and seniors can get college and career planning assistance, while freshmen can get help with transitioning from middle school to high school.
“I wholeheartedly believe that our students need things that are geared towards them by grade level,” she said. “I think that it would be extremely beneficial to have a piece of time in the day to help them do those things.”
Homeroom was canceled during the first week of the semester, but it went on as planned the past two weeks. On Sept. 11, students were asked to go to their homeroom on Wednesday and watch a video about gun violence. This week, students were to use the time as a study hall.
Some teachers reported low attendance rates.
“I think I had half of my students show up,” said English teacher Barry Varela. “Whether that’s because it was just the first time we had actual homeroom and students were confused about where they were supposed to go, or whether they knew where they were supposed to go but felt like they weren’t really obligated to, I don’t know.”
