Starting this upcoming final exam week, students will be assigned a room during their prep period and attendance will be taken, fulfilling more time in seat for each student in case of situations like weather delays. The room will be one of their finals each day.

“It gives us increased instructional minutes, which is good to have, because we don’t have a lot right now,” Principal Ryan Silva said. “So, if there are cancellations because of weather or even late starts, that would take away from our instructional minutes.”

Instructional minutes differ from state to state and require a certain amount of minutes in a seat or classroom. Colorado requires 1,080 hours of time in a seat for each high school student. The assigned prep period would add around two extra days of instructional minutes, for a total of 3.7 days. They provide necessary cushioning. 

Parents can still call students out from class. Even if the majority of students are absent, simply taking attendance counts for instructional hours in Colorado law. Despite this, many students are still confused about the new change, and don’t see a reason to stay during the prep period, especially the afternoon periods which are from 2:40-3:30. 

“I’m not super stoked about it, mainly because I do drive to school,” senior Gavin Crino said. “It’s pretty inconvenient just because of everything I got going on throughout the day, and I like my own personal time.”

Prep periods will now function as a study hall for final exam preparation.

“Let’s say, your period four is your prep period; it doesn’t mean that during that time you can only study for period four,” Silva said. “You can study for any class you want. It’s just that you’d go to your period four class and your period four teacher would take attendance for you.”