Everyone loves the feeling of waking up in the morning and realizing they have extra time to sleep. Most students at DCDS practically have to drag themselves out of bed each morning, so they do not have this luxury. Now that school starts at 8:15 AM instead of 8:00 AM, students can enjoy the satisfaction of crawling back under their blankets for a whopping 15 extra minutes!
DCDS decided to begin school at a later time in order to stagger traffic from the Detroit Country Day Middle School to ensure that students arrive at school on time. Now that it’s winter and the roads are starting to freeze over, traffic is a nightmare. So, starting 15 minutes later seems like the logical solution. Still, is this 15 minute shift really necessary?
Although this shift could help students because they typically arrive to school later during the winter months, the schedule does not need to continue during the rest of the year, when the weather is much milder.
“The point is to stagger the start times slightly, with the hopes that a little separation will ease traffic congestion,” Upper School Director Mr. Timothy Bearden said, “we will study the traffic patterns during the pilot and determine what changes or schedules might be appropriate for future consideration.”
Students like me who ride the bus or others who drive their younger siblings to the middle school still have to leave at the same time, so they cannot even take advantage of the later starting time anyway.
Junior Anusha Mamidipaka said “I don’t think the later start time is beneficial for me because I ride the bus in the morning, so I have to wake up at the same time anyway.”
Even if the Upper School decided to start later to ease the traffic congestion in the morning, most students would simply wake up later and still come to school late. The schedule change just unnecessarily complicates the already confusing DCDS schedule.
For now, students have to deal with the new schedule and the changes it brings. The later start time may not affect when school ends, but implementing the change requires a few sacrifices. The already limited amount of club time has been shortened from the usual 50 minutes to only 40 minutes. Clubs like the Day Times and Yearbook now have even less time to work and discuss plans. There is no more long lunch on Fridays, not to mention 15 minute break is now only 10 minute break! Despite the loss of some free time, the Monday schedule still has the original 9:05 start time, which means students can still enjoy some free time regardless of the shuffling schedule. However, one constant in the new schedule doesn’t make up for the other unnecessary changes in the schedule.
Shortened clubs, shorter lunch, extra but unnecessary time in the morning. The new schedule only shuffles around an already confusing schedule. Hopefully the new schedule won’t be here to stay.
