Do you like being in person school only two days a week? If you were in charge of how school would function right now, what changes would you make? What do you think our school year will look like next year? Over the past few days, I have asked the same questions to a few teachers here in Lompoc High School and I was surprised to see how different people think about these situations.

I asked Mr. Perry, the physics teacher, what his  opinions were on the current bell schedule. He replied saying, “The current schedule that we are calling the “hybrid model” is OK. It is at least the best that we can do given the circumstances. Only getting to see half of my students in person for just 2 days every week makes planning instruction and teaching effective lessons difficult. I try and make the lessons in person as engaging and hands on as possible because I know that those students that I have in person will be stuck working independently on the computer for the rest of the week. I want the time that they spend here in school, in person, to be exciting and fun. I hope that next year is back to a normal schedule and I think that it will be.” When I asked him what he would do to make this year and next year a better school year, he said, “We need to get all students back on campus every day. I want to get back to 100% in person instruction. School needs to get back to normal. It will be better for both teachers and students.” I also wanted to know how he felt about the California law that was passed and is going to take act next school year stating, “Gavin Newsom has signed a law that bans high schools from starting classes before 8:30 a.m. … The law goes into effect no later than July 1, 2021.“ He did not like this idea believing that students will stay up later than usual, knowing that school will start later. He also believes that with school starting later, it will only push back more activities such as sports, clubs, extracurricular activities and school programs.

We saw one point of view from a teacher that disagrees with most of the things going on right now. Now lets see another point of view from Mrs. Gaspar, who teaches Yearbook, AP European History and would monitor the Apex program where it helps students get all their credits.

I asked her the same questions and she replied saying “I actually have no issues with starting later next year, I have a son in middle school and it is hard to get him up early in the morning but when he was younger it was not an issue. I feel like teenagers tend to naturally want to be up later in the night, for instance my son even though his bedtime is early he usually cannot fall asleep until late. I feel the only issue with starting the school day later is for our student athletes when they have early outs because they might miss more periods than normal. But maybe sports need to push back game times to accommodate this new law.“.

While Mrs. Gaspar has almost the exact opposite opinion than Mr. Perry, we can see how it is difficult trying to figure out how we will be able to be in school when teachers do not agree with “many opinions.”