Many students have at least one passing period where their next class is on the opposite side of campus. It can be difficult for students to navigate in just five minutes. Late students miss necessary instruction, which can affect their performance in class.
“Most schools have a five to 10-minute passing period,” Administrative Vice Principal Amy Hanson said. Five minutes may work for smaller schools, but it’s not sufficient for larger schools like M-A.
For one, not all classes end right when the bell rings. “If a teacher decides that they want to keep us in for a little longer than usual, then that directly affects me getting to my next class on time,” freshman Caroline Pflaum said. After the bell, students have to pack up their bags before walking to their next class.
For junior Lily Jacobi, getting from her AP Environmental Science class in the S-Wing all the way to the end of the E-Wing for AP Language requires her to run if she doesn’t want to be late. “It affects me a lot because I feel really under pressure when I’m trying to get to my class, and the teacher yells at me when I’m late, but I can’t physically get to class on time without running,” Jacobi said.
For other students, the short passing period adds unnecessary stress, as they rush to get to class or use the restroom.
“Sometimes after the bell, my teacher says, ‘wait until I’m done talking,’ and then there goes my plans for going to the bathroom during passing period because it’s a tight schedule,” Pflaum said.
Teachers often expect students to be on time, adding to the stress of arriving on time to class.
“We can only go to the bathroom four times in Spanish for each semester, and my teacher always says go during breaks, but we don’t have time for that during passing periods,” Mackey said.
For many students who have lockers, the lack of time means they never get the chance to utilize them before class, which defeats the purpose of lockers.
“My locker is on the Green, and my classes are really far away from that, so I never have enough time to get stuff from my locker without being late,” sophomore Cindy Qiao said.
This problem is especially challenging for freshmen and other students enrolled in P.E. because the athletic facilities are far from the main academic wings.
“A lot of people from my P.E. have Biology next, which is in C-0, so we start class super late because, for the first five or 10 minutes, people are just coming into class,” freshman Mia Mackey said. “We don’t learn as much because we don’t have enough time.”
Freshman Yoonwon Bae also has P.E. before Biology and struggles to arrive on time. “We have labs where you can’t be late, and it affects my grade,” Bae said. “My Biology teacher says to come earlier and get changed quicker, but I can’t do that.”
The time allotted for students to change out of their P.E. clothes varies, which can leave them rushing to get to their next class.
In classes on the outer ends of campus, many students, even entire classrooms, miss out on essential class time or instruction, which can delay lesson plans in the long run.
Hanson expressed concerns about the lack of supervision under a longer passing period. “The longer we have students out and about, the more we have to monitor, and so there needs to be a happy medium. You don’t want the passing period to be too long, but you don’t want it to be too short,” Hanson said.
Many schools in the Sequoia Union High School District have longer passing periods of six or seven minutes to make up for their larger campuses. Carlmont, for example, has a seven-minute passing period.
“If your classes are across campus, it definitely takes the whole passing period to get there,” Carlmont senior Lea Liakovich said. “I don’t mind classes starting at odd times, but sometimes it can be hard to remember.”
If passing periods were extended from five to six minutes, students could get to their classes more comfortably. Making the 10-minute passing period after lunch five minutes long would allow for this and wouldn’t make the school day longer or cut into instructional time.
“That could be something that we explore if this was something students really wanted to change,” Hanson said when asked about this possible solution.
M-A’s large campus and crowded hallways mean that five minutes is not enough time. Extending passing periods would benefit class participation and allow all students to feel like they have the time to be successful in school.
