A schedule change has arrived at AHS, ending the school day at 3:13 p.m. Academic Opportunities, also known as “AO,” follows second period every day except Monday, on which seminar is held instead. This time is intended for students to make up tests or quizzes or complete missing work. If a student has been absent, there is no excuse for them to not have time for making up work, as they now have time to go to any teacher’s room to work on what they missed.

The idea was proposed at a professional development meeting in which the committee decided to visit the Dallas Center-Grimes school district to discuss the program as it has already been implemented into their school day there. The goal is to give students more one-on-one help and to hopefully reduce the number of students with failing grades.

“Flexisched,” as many students are becoming more familiar with, is a tool used to schedule where students will be during AO for the upcoming week. “It’s great, you can go ask teachers for help without having to come in early or stay after school. It’s also nice for the kids that have a full schedule. It gives them an opportunity to actually get a study hall,” said junior Belle Wickman. Students may select any class to attend unless a teacher has already locked them into a class. Teachers can decide to do this if they have more important work at hand. There are quite a few enrichment options to choose from each week. For example, a student may decide to take guitar lessons with band director Jarrod O’Donnell, attend an independent culinary class, learn to juggle or play words games with the English teachers.