The New System: Flex

Flextime is a newly introduced application to Washington High School that removes the old system of simply going to any class during Husky. This change was implemented by the administration who wanted to try out an application already used  by other  schools in the district to ensure that students remain accountable for their actions. This is in response to the growing concern that students were leaving school premises during Husky and not getting appropriate help for classes. So far,  the feedback to this alteration has been mixed, with some teachers praising the new system and others having concerns. While the majority of the student body have concerns on the implementation, everyone had different experiences in the past three months.

Washington’s administrators, the one behind the implementation, decided to make the change after hearing the various concerns teachers had about students leaving class in order to ditch. One of the major decision makers for the new program is Vice Principal Jeff Speckels, who felt that Washington should adopt the practice. His main goal for implementing this new system is to track student movement around school during Husky period. Mr. Speckles has stated that the choice to switch over to the new system has largely been influenced by the teachers themselves, who deal with student interactions on a daily basis. “It is beneficial to both students and teachers alike to schedule appropriate times,” says Mr. Speckles.

Teachers such as Brian Hsieh, a Pre-Calculus and GFA teacher, have nothing but praise for the new system, citing the numerous ways in which students can reach out to make an appointment with a specific teacher. However, he suggests that Flextime be extended to four days rather than just two, because its purpose has been served well among teachers and students. “Flextime has been an amazing resource that has brought students who may not feel confident enough to come up during class time to ask questions and allow them to have allocated time to ask me anything,” he says. “I have seen tremendous improvement in students who show up to my class during Husky.” He also mentions that the ability to make appointments for students is helpful because it allows him to schedule makeup tests and quizzes. All in all, Mr. Hsieh feels that this system really helped students and teachers gain control over the usage of Husky period. 

Another teacher, Gabriel Lee, who teaches AP Computer Science and Algebra 1, has mixed opinions. At the beginning of the year, he had a lot of people coming to his class for Flextime. Thus, he ended up signing up students for intervention, a math help center, to reduce the number of people who come to his class. This allowed him to  focus more on a certain number of students who come to his class for help, rather than letting anyone come in. Like Mr. Hsieh, Mr. Lee feels that “flextime dates could be extended so that students can receive more help and the number of students receiving help can also be increased.” Yet, he also wishes that he could easily sign up students for his Flextime class, rather than manually inputting student’s information. “I wish the process was much more streamlined,” Mr. Lee admits. 

Despite the relatively positive view of the teachers, many students have different opinions. With criticism centered around the lack of flexibility to go to different teachers, students are largely opposed to the new system. One student, Alicia Cordova, states, “I wish we could just go to any classroom like we used too. That made things much easier. I don’t mind scanning in, but the whole appointment thing is a hassle.” In the end, the teachers and administrators are finding the Flextime transition easy, while students have their own set of concerns and thoughts on this new implementation.