During the 2009-2010 school year, a revolutionary concept was introduced at Cedar Ridge High School. The idea of “Plus Period,” an extra period between first and second blocks, quickly caught on with students and staff alike, as the extra time gave students an opportunity to go to any classes that they were struggling with and receive extra help.

If students didn’t have a class that they needed extra assistance in, then they would simply proceed to their second period and work quietly on homework. That version of Plus Period was a highly beneficial tool for a large number of students, and many students state that they reaped the benefits of receiving help in their classes.

            At the start of the second semester, the Cedar Ridge staff and administration decided to make a change to the Plus Period system. They instituted a policy mandating that students go to their first period on Monday, their second period on Tuesday, their third period on Wednesday, their advisory on Thursday, and their fourth period on Friday.

This change has prompted concern from students who no longer have the freedom to go to whatever individual class they need assistance in. Administrators cited such reasons as excessive noise in the hallways and lack of class attendance in their decision.

            My schedule for this semester includes videography, journalism, band, and AP Calculus BC. While each of those classes comes with its own challenges, my Plus Period would certainly be best spent in Ms. Cook’s classroom, learning the intricacies of calculus, a subject that has often been mentally frustrating and exhausting to me in the past.

Instead, with the changes to Plus Period, I spend a day in videography, journalism, and band, each of which would be much better spent in a class that is especially challenging to my history and English-centric brain. While a student can technically go to other classes through a complicated system of permission, this current Plus Period bears little resemblance to the freedom and helpfulness of its predecessor.

As sad as it is to say, Plus Period has lost its way and no longer serves the purpose of helping struggling students which was the reason for its installation in the Cedar Ridge schedule.