Neshaminy High School’s new policy of homeroom taking place after first period has been in effect since the first day of the 2022-2023 school year. The system was enacted in order to prevent students from arriving late to school and is currently enforced by staff.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Neshaminy treated students’ lateness and absences more leniently, and whether they were aware of it or not, many took advantage of it. After virtual learning, education quickly slipped out of the hands of students and teachers, and the enablement of poor attendance has only worsened the loss. Although the change may seem tedious at times, Neshaminy’s top priority is a speedy return to normalcy for the sake of students and staff.
Neshaminy’s new principal Stephen Garstka strongly believes that the pandemic warrants the policy. He emphasized the point that all of the fun activities that students look forward to are only possible if the student body remains responsible and follows this of many more policies.
“It really is, in my opinion, about our distance and time away from the pandemic and the ability to get back to normal,” Gartska stated. “In each of the class meetings that I was in, I talked about the idea that we are going to be able to bring back a whole lot of the fun things, but with getting things back, we also need to get back to accountability, responsibility, and rules.”
Before the school year started, the policy had already been set in place by administration. Contrary to popular belief, Garstka was actually not a part of initiating this new policy. Bensalem High School has also implemented a similar change to their school schedule.
“Moving homeroom from before first period to after first period was not a decision that I made. I agree with the decision, but it was made before I started. When I left Bensalem, we were planning on making the same change over there,” he explained.
Tenth and eleventh grade attendance secretary Linda Chorba has closely witnessed the issue of tardiness from behind the attendance window. Unlike many students, Chorba was happy when she found out the news.
“I thought [the homeroom policy] was good because it might cut down on students being late,” she remarked. “I don’t think [students] are happy at all.”
Despite negative student feedback, the plan seems to be working. If students continue to get to school in a timely manner, they can expect to see this policy in upcoming school years.
“Over the past few weeks of directing traffic in the traffic circle, I have found that we can get everyone into the building on time, so I don’t see that policy changing. I’m not looking to change it- I think if everybody continues to provide the effort that they have recently, then everybody will have the opportunity to be on time for first period,” Garstka maintained.
Following this policy, we can only hope for the rest of the year to go just as smooth as it has been going.
“Sooner or later, [the homeroom policy] is going to be the new norm,” Garstka vocalized. “We’re going to keep rolling right along and we’re going to have a great year.”