Orono High School students started the first day of school in shock as they learned that the Spartan Hour schedule had been changed.
Spartan Hour used to occur every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of the week. The schedule was consistent from week to week for years. This sacred time was for treated like a study hall for students between 1st hour and snack break. As a result Spartan Hour would take 7-8 minutes from each class on the following days. Now there is no consistency within the days. The schedule varies from having 0-4 Spartan Hour days a week.
Spartan hour was started five years ago in replacement of Flex, which allowed students to have a an area to study like Spartan Hour. Flex was replaced for many reasons. The most important one being that it took an entire class period away. The solution of this chaos was Spartan Hour. For the past several years students have been content with the new schedule
When arriving at school on the first day, upperclassmen were concerned that they were no longer able to use this time to study. Most students have said they want the schedule reversed to the previous schedule (M-W-F). Teachers were also unaware of the change of schedule until a few days before the start of the school year.
The schedule was changed due to the fact there wasn’t enough time in the week to accomplish science labs or class discussions. Most students said they are very frustrated with the fact they don’t know which days they will have a study hall. These changes interfere with club meetings, scheduled retakes, extra curricular activities, after school jobs, etc.
Complaints from students were very common in the first weeks of school as these changes were revealed.