Though some area high schools have eight period days, schools in District 202, only have seven period days. These are enough classes for the average teen. There should not be an 8th period added to the school day because shortening the class periods to make room for another one would be detrimental.

The school day should not have an extra period because even though students can take another class, like an elective, it will cost the district a ton of money to pay the teacher salaries. According to the district website, in the early 1990s, District 202 used to have an eight-period day, but it had to be cut in order to save money.

Adding an 8th period to the day would affect the length of all the classes by shortening them for the extra period. The class time would be cut from 56 minutes to 48 minutes.

This would also create problems of students not having enough time in class to do the assignments which would then give students more outside homework.

The science classes would be the hardest hit because if the class periods were to be shortened, then students would not have enough time to do lab experiments.

Additionally, classes like math, English, social sciences, art, music and foreign language classes would all have problems of not having enough time. Students would have to do more work at home, and this could be a big problem because if they have part-time jobs after school and are involved in sports or clubs, then many students would not have enough time to complete the required assignments.

For example, if students are involved in two sports like cross country and basketball, then they would have to make time for doing their homework after practice, games and meets.

It also affects lunch periods by students not having enough time to eat their lunch. If they purchase lunch from the school, it will take them a while to buy and eat their food.

Anyone who has ever stood in one of the cafeteria food lines, knows there is hardly enough time to stand, choose, pay and eat.

The district should keep the school day as seven periods otherwise it would be a big change for high school students. They would have to adjust to the new bell schedule.

In general, the 8th period should not be added onto the schedule because the change would cost the district too much money. This cost would defeat the purpose of the extra period and end up making things more complicated for the students, staff and district to handle.