Fine-tuning flex

In order to accommodate students previously taking advantage of flextime, revisions are in place to maximize efficiency. The goal of flex is to allow students access to tutoring or missed classwork which they would not be able to get if they rode the bus to and from school.

“If the true objective is to help students finish homework or help students finish a quiz during the day,” Spanish teacher Edmond Tejeda said, “the more work we can get completed—it just makes it more efficient.

Instead of having a default room to report to, a rotating schedule keeps students in direct contact with their teachers. 

“It’s beneficial to be able to turn and talk to that teacher at the moment,” senior Camille Aljibe said. “This year, you really get to know all of them a little bit better and it’s definitely a bit more organized.”

The process for students requesting to see a different teacher than the one scheduled for that particular day, requires them to let the teacher they would like to see know 2 to 3 days in advance in order to allow them to email the designated flex advisor of said student for the planned day. Once the teacher has approval from the designated flex teacher, they give a pass to the student which must be shown to their flex teacher before going to the requested class.

Some students find that making the request to report to a different class than the one scheduled difficult.

“You have to go through so much work to just try to get to someplace you need to be,” sophomore Christopher Fuentes said. “If you need help in one class, you have to put in a whole email a few days before, and they might or might not get it.”

Students not getting accounted for in attendance and roaming the halls during flex contributed to the administrative decision. The new constrictions maintain a more controlled environment and decrease the incentive to skip.

“I don’t see the benefit of housing students […] not allowing them to go anywhere else” Tejeda said.  “I don’t know if it’s necessarily meeting their academic needs, […] and if they don’t need me, what do I do?”

 According to several students the new changes have not increased their efficiency, and in some cases have decreased their ability to focus and get work done.

“I do prefer the old flex, just because you had more of an opportunity to seek out the help that you need,” Aljibe said. “ This year, while it is for enrichment and learning, you have an assigned place to go everyday, so that doesn’t exactly give you the opportunity to give you the help that you need at the time.”

Many students are finding adjusting to the rotational schedule difficult and confusing.

“I really can’t keep track of what period is flex,” junior Nisha Sudheer said. “I just liked it better last year, because it was easier to remember which [room] to go to, and I had the same friends there, so it was a constant in the school day.”