SAN JOSE, CALIF.– Current juniors, seniors, and staff remembered a time when Silver Creek High School started much sooner than it does now, but this late start has only made things worse for everyone on campus.

Prior to the 2022-2023 school year, classes used to start much earlier, but also end much sooner, with Wednesday early day ending before 1 p.m. This allowed both students and teachers alike to schedule important events much easier, like a doctor’s appointment. But with our current bell schedule, many students don’t get out until 4 p.m. with some teachers unable to leave until 6 p.m. Now when having to schedule that aforementioned doctor’s appointment, it has to be during a break, or worst case scenario, summer.

This late start was implemented to comply with California’s school guidelines to promote better attendance, but many teachers claim that it hasn’t fixed anything for their students’ attendance, with some students saying that the late start actually hinders their attendance. I went around campus, with a pencil pretending that it was a microphone and walked up to my fellow students and asked them how they felt about this change.

Some students say that the change actually made things harder for them, as their parents had to rework their schedule to drop them off and pick them up. Some students complained that ending classes at 4 p.m. was annoying as they had barely any time left in the day to do the things they enjoy. One student said they couldn’t care less about the schedule as their parents dropped them off early anyways. And a handful of students looked at me with confusion.

It can be mostly agreed that this late schedule has damaged and harmed our school, with almost no positive return. But, unfortunately, until California realizes their mistake and admits their general disconnect with the education system, this bell schedule is what we are stuck with.