On all early release days this year, students will be dismissed at 11 o'clock, instead of 11:30, as in previous years.

The schedule on an early release day will now consist of six mini-periods for lower house and seven for upper house.

Lunches will no longer be served on release days.

According to Vice Principal Mike Mastrullo, these changes are set for this year, but there is always room for change in the future.

The decision to cut lunches was made by the school leaders and Whitsons, the food service provider at THS. Students were not buying as many lunches on Early Release Days as regular school days, so Whitsons was losing money.

Mr. Mastrullo said that because students were not buying lunches there was "a lot of food going to waste."

"I think it's a good idea," explained senior Kelly Waite. "Now they're not wasting as much food on half-days."

On release days in previous years, students were dismissed at 11:30, and the teachers stayed at the school for the full day. Now, on six of the half-days, the teachers will be released at the same time as the students. In order to save the jobs of 2-3 teachers that had been cut, the teachers decided to make a compromise. Instead of getting paid for the full 181 school year, they will now be paid for 178 days. These 3 unpaid days were split into six half-days. Mr. Mastrullo has confirmed that one of the release days will be the day before Christmas Break.