Instead of study halls, all seniors have late arrivals or early dismissals on their schedules. Free periods, however, are not limited to only seniors as of late. Juniors who meet certain requirements are given the opportunity to have a free period put in their schedule.

“We let them arrive late, and we let them leave early,” associate principal Randy Klein said. The juniors that had grades of all A’s and B’s from the prior semester who also had study hall first or eighth hour were given the chance of a free period. The free period would take the place of the study hall. This has been going on for a couple of years.

Senior Sandra Kromminga had a free period as a junior and she liked it much better than study hall. “Study hall was really boring and it was hard to concentrate,” Kromminga said. Kromminga used her free period to study for other classes. “I stayed (at the school) and read my biology book every day.”

The reason juniors were admitted to have free periods is due to the growing class sizes at the high school. “As we got bigger, study halls got filled with teachers that were needed for (teaching) classes,” Klein said. “So we tried to alleviate the study halls.” The result was that certain juniors had the opportunity to arrive late or leave early.