Schools
Comfort, Sleep Lost to Changes at School
It's tough adjusting to a new school routine, but some students in Kirkwood have to go to school a whopping two minutes earlier and go without comfortable couches to sit on.
Ringing in a new school year is always an adjustment, but one change this year means some students’ alarm clocks are ringing a couple of minutes earlier than they used to.
The word came down to students at in a “phone blast” from principal Tim Cochran just days before the first day back: this year, school starts at 8:13 a.m., not 8:15 a.m.
Similar adjustments occurred throughout the district, spokeswoman Ginger Fletcher said. Fletcher said several schools had to “tweak” their starting times to make up for adding or subtracting a few minutes at lunch or other times in the day. In addition, transportation issues involving bus routes led to some changes.
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The odd two-minute time adjustment had plenty of people puzzled, but was it difficult for students to adjust?
“Not really,” eighth-grader Tim Nile said. “They don’t really care.”
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Another change students may have noticed when they stepped into their classrooms after the long summer’s break: no more cushy couches or comfy armchairs tucked into quiet reading nooks.
The upholstered furniture – mostly castoffs from the homes of teachers or students– was moved out by order of the fire inspector.
“It’s just one of those things,” Fletcher said, adding that the furniture was deemed flammable. She said most students probably didn’t even notice.
journalism teacher Mitch Eden noticed. And so did his students.
“We had a couch, a loveseat, a futon and a chair that has been there over 20 years,” he said. “It’s comfy, it’s home.”
Senior Suzy Bambini fondly recalled a favorite reading spot back in grade school that probably fell victim to the twice-annual safety inspections.
“My fifth grade teacher had a couch,” she remembered. “For silent reading time, we’d all battle for it because otherwise we’d get stuck with the carpet squares.”
Not to worry, said Mike Wade, sophomore class principal at Kirkwood High School.
“The teachers are so good and the kids are so smart, they could learn in a sardine can,” he told the student newspaper, the Kirkwood Call.