Artwork by London Henderson
Riverside High School encourages students to get involved in clubs, yet its schedule leaves little room for students to actually participate in them.
There isn’t always a convenient time during the school day to meet. Many students have responsibilities outside of school and can’t always stay after school to participate.
Transportation is also an issue. Students who rely on buses may not have a way home if their club meeting takes place after school. Not every student has a parent who can pick them up or another form of transportation. This leads to students having to choose between participating in clubs or having a reliable way to get home.
The lack of club opportunities can also affect students preparing for college. Clubs allow students to develop leadership, communication, teamwork skills, and gain experiences they can include in their college applications.
In the past, Riverside had Smart Lunch, where all lunch periods were combined into one hour-long period. After Smart lunch Riverside introduced Pirate Block, which was a 90 minute period in the middle of the school day that was divided into two 45 minute blocks. Students were separated into two groups, with one attending lunch while the other half stayed in class for study hall or club meetings.
Smart Lunch wasn’t perfect. Former Riverside students shared during interviews with The Pirates’ Hook that having everyone out of class at the same time created supervision concerns, and many students wandered around the school during Pirate Block instead of going to where they were supposed to be.
However, these schedules allowed students to attend clubs during the school day. While also separating lunch into two separate blocks, which addresses some of the supervision concerns that came with Smart Lunch.
Although they both had their problems, they offered opportunities for all students to participate in clubs during the school day that the current A/B/C lunch schedule doesn’t.
Riverside needs a structured time for clubs to meet during the school day. Having a designated meeting location for clubs and requiring students to report to said club meeting could help prevent the problems that happened with previous schedules while still giving students time to participate. Extending homeroom once a week gives students an advantage to use this extra time as a study hall period or to meet with clubs, and this only affects class hours by shortening them by 10 minutes.
Clubs are an important part of the high school experience. They allow students to explore their interests, meet new people, and become more involved within their school community.Rather than abandoning these opportunities, the school should learn from the problems in its past schedules and create a system that works for both students and staff.
