In some countries around the world open campus is a custom, but here in the U.S. the idea of open campus in high schools just seems to be a dream to most.  Most of those lucky few students who are able to enjoy the freedom of open campus attend private schools or regional schools.  But how would this work in small public schools like Ipswich? The students would love it, and most teachers agree that if done correctly, this idea could be great. The only thing is, there are a lot of regulations.

             The main regulation that would hold Ipswich back from being able to open their campus for lunch would be the Education Reform Act that was passed in 1993.  This act states that every public school in Massachusetts needs to have at least 990 hours of structured learning time in a school year.  With our lunch being only 25 minutes long the schedule would need to be changed to allow enough time for open campus. 

            When speaking with the Vice Principle, Mr. Dalton, I proposed the idea of combining directed and lunch together into one large period, allowing upperclassmen enough time to leave for lunch. Theoretically this would be a good idea, but the problem is that our directed study period is considered part of the structured learning time that goes into meeting the requirements.

            In order to have the open campus, the day would have to be extended so that the longer break period would be allowed. This could possibly make the school day go to about 2:45 pm, leaving an hour and fifteen minutes in the middle of the day for open campus.  If made possible there would be many different ways to manage an open campus. In the past, before the ERA was made, Ipswich had an open campus.  There was a time when if you were an honor roll senior you were allowed to leave for study hall and lunch.  This seemed to work great and went on for years, that is until there was an incident involving bodily harm to one student, causing the end to the honor roll incentive. 

            When asked, Mr. Dalton said, “Having open campus only for honor roll seniors or juniors could be an incentive for getting better grades.”  I do agree with this, it would drive more seniors to meet all those honor roll requirements because open campus would be such a luxury.  In the past, Ipswich has set aside one day a week for the upperclassmen to be able to leave campus.  This idea is awful.  That would just be a tease, and would throw off scheduling.

            My theory is go big or go home.  The question you need to ask yourselves is, would you go to school for an extra 40 minutes a day if it meant having the freedom of open campus for over an hour in the middle of the day?  I would!