By Isaiah Ramos and Messiah Licon
Marfa High School Journalism Class
This year, Marfa ISD has changed the school schedule to a Tuesday-Friday school week. We decided to interview the faculty and students here at Marfa ISD about their opinions with some of the new changes going into this school year. To start off, we interviewed Superintendent Arturo Alferez.
We asked, “Why was the four-day schedule changed from Monday to Thursday to Tuesday to Friday?” Alferez responded back, “Instead of making students come in on a Friday for one-on-one time with a teacher, we put those classes into a regular school day so now you can say we are a traditional school four days a week. Now, why Mondays? Mondays was more for, because getting feedback from parents, getting feedback from students, teachers, you know one of the issues that we had last year for example, we were not in school on Friday but we had football games or we had pep rallies, and we had to kind of move everything around from a Friday to a Thursday, if you remember that. The other thing also, some parents started voicing concerns, such as, ‘We have doctor’s appointments, and when you have Fridays off, doctors are not open, and we can’t get doctor appointments or dentist appointments. We have to get them some time in the week, which means that the students will be absent again.’”
Alferez continued, “So now with Mondays, it gives them [the parents] more flexibility to actually have those scheduled appointments on Monday when we’re not in school. The other thing about it is trying to help with the spending of the operating costs of the school district when you’re not here on a Friday. For example, last year, when we were here on a Friday, the whole school was turned on. I mean, from lights to HVAC to heaters, cafeteria, running water, etc., and you’re not using the entire building, you’re using only certain parts of the building, but you’re still wasting electricity. Now, with Mondays off, everything’s shut down, so we’re actually now trying to save on the bills.”
Alferez continued with his last reason for switching, saying, “The other thing also is, you know, most of your national holidays fall on Mondays, so I had parents … ask me … how come we don’t observe certain holidays when we’re in school? And, well, the majority of national holidays fall on Mondays, and now it gives families the opportunity to celebrate the holiday. Right, so that’s the third thing.”
Next we decided to ask, “Is there anything that you wanted to change but didn’t get implemented into this year?” Alferez replied, “They’re not considered new rules. These rules have been in place since you were in elementary, but the thing is enforcing them is different: such as the truancy, such as the absences. It’s actually a state law –– that you cannot have too many absences as it could lead to truancy.” Alferez continued, “So nothing new has been brought in except for maybe the discipline matrix. You know, our principal worked very hard on it and the leadership team actually worked very hard on it over the summer to develop the discipline matrix that will follow the same way as here and also at the elementary.”
The next thing we asked was, with this new schedule change, now that we’re going to have Mondays off and we go Tuesday through Friday, will this be good for the school? To which Alferez said, “Well, again, we’re not going to know the data on that yet until we go through the school year because it’s just one year. If you really want to compare years, you gotta go compare last year’s data. And the only way we’re going to compare this year’s data to last year is if we go through this one full year. Right. Okay. If our attendance increases, if we have less truancy, if we have less absences, if we have higher scores, then this calendar is working. But, if we see the same as what we had last year, then it’s something that we might want to say, well, maybe let’s go back to five days, you know.”
The next person we decided to interview is Mrs. Hartnett, who is the English teacher here at Marfa ISD. The first question we decided to ask was, “How do you think that’s going to impact the school positively or negatively?” She responded back, “The four-day week having Mondays off kind of concerns me, mainly for our athletes, because I feel like we’re already going to be out Mondays. A lot of those kids will be out on Fridays or the majority of the day on Fridays, so I’m worried about them only having three full days.” Other than that, I think it’ll be similar to last year, but I am concerned about the athletes for that reason.”
“Do you prefer Fridays or Mondays?” She answered, “I don’t know. I’m willing to give Mondays a try and see how it works out. I mean, either way, it’s one day off, so it’s still a four-day week.”
The last question we asked was, “How do you think the new schedule is going to affect you?”
“I like it because Mondays are kind of draggy for me anyway, so I feel like it’ll be better in that aspect. Personally, I don’t like it because my husband gets Fridays off, so that kind of puts us opposite now. But as far as that, I like not coming on Mondays because it’s an icky day for me,” she said.
The next person we decided to ask was Mrs. Donaldson, who is the science teacher here at Marfa ISD. The first question that we asked was “How do you think this [calendar] change will affect the school?” She answered, “Well, I’m not really sure. Just because, for example, this week the volleyball girls are going to miss Thursday and Friday, when before they would have just missed Thursday. Typically, we don’t have any sporting events going on those Mondays, so it was a good thing to go to school on Monday, since we wouldn’t have to worry about [anyone] missing school for sports, since it would fall on Fridays. This means these students are only getting a three-day instructional school week, so they miss out on information they need.”
Mrs. Donaldson paused for thought and continued, “Another thing is that now that we have those Mondays off, I don’t know if that’s going to affect parents, since last year a lot of parents adjusted their schedules with having the kids home on Friday. And, now their kids will be home on Mondays, so now parents have to rework their schedules.” Then, Mrs. Donaldson explained that two years ago, the administration “sent out the poll to everyone in the school about the four-day week.” She said, of the change to Mondays off, that she wished the parents had a similar say. “I wished they would have sent it to the parents and also included what days would have been affected. But, to keep the four-day week, I’m willing to give it a try and see how it goes.Mrs. Donaldson wanted to remind us that she’s keeping an open mind during the change, and really focusing on her student outcomes, saying, “Well, I say let’s give this new schedule a shot, and see how it shakes out. If it turns out to be something amazing, then I’m all for it, and if we have to revert back, well, whichever. In reality it should be what’s best for the students, not what’s best for me, not what’s best for anyone else, it should be what’s more conducive for you [the students] so that you’re more successful. Learning and excelling and graduating, and making it into your life to be successful.”
The last question we asked was, “Was there anything regarding the student handbook or new rules that you wish were implemented or changed?”
“You know, maybe we should have given y’all [students] a bit of a warning with the dress code before the school year started, just because some things that were allowed last year are not this year. That, and all your parents have gone school shopping and spent all this money on your clothes, it would’ve been nice to give everyone a heads up saying, like, ‘Hey this is going to be implemented.’ Just so it wasn’t a problem for you, and especially for parents since they spent that money. You know, yes, your jeans may have holes in them, but they are expensive! As long as the rips aren’t indecent, or higher than your knee, similar to last year, then there shouldn’t be a huge problem,” she said.
The next person we decided to interview was Senior Tenessa Hinojos. The first question asked was: “Do you prefer Fridays or Mondays off?” She answered, “I like Mondays off, mostly for things like Presidents Day, and holidays like that, which usually fall on Monday.” The second question we asked her was how she thought this new schedule was going to affect the school. Tenessa said, “I think it’s going to be a good thing because last year having things like pep rallies on Thursdays and Wednesdays was just not fun. And after all that, you would have to wait till the next day to actually see the sporting event happen!”
The last question we asked her was what her opinions are on the new rules implemented into the student handbook. “I feel like the dress code, things like leggings and the holes in pants weren’t even bugging anyone at all,” said Tenessa.
The final person we decided to ask was sophomore Mateo Meza, about which day off he preferred. He disagreed with Tenessa, saying, “Well, to be honest, I prefer Fridays off, it just feels more natural. It just feels right. And I don’t think it will affect me too much, I think it’ll be the same as last year, nothing too crazy compared to last year.” So, in conclusion, everyone has an opinion on the new calendar, the new school year, and the new rules.
