by Sydney Perkins |

Imagine next year, after fourth hour everyday, every high school student dancing down the hallway singing, “What time is it? Liberty Time!” There is a new proposal for a concept called, “Liberty Time.”

It is designed to provide students with time in their day for academic support. It is a structured system for students to manage their time independently and appropriately. So far, the proposal has gone to the department chairs and was given to faculty for review at the faculty meeting on Tuesday, January 22.  As of right now, “Liberty Time” is still waiting for a final approval.

Blue Springs High School already offers this approach, which is called, “Wildcat Hour.” Six of our Student Council members (sophomores Teryn Deshler, Zach Kilgas, Mary Mwaura and juniors Kaylie Botello, Addison Moore and Ray Pottios) got the chance to view this concept during a day-long campus tour.

“Wildcat Hour is basically an hour out of the school day where students have free time,” sophomore Teryn Deshler said. “They can talk to friends, work on homework and go get extra help from teachers. Some teachers even have study sessions. Lunch is also served during Wildcat Hour, but it’s kind of a privilege. You may sometimes be required to go to a teacher for Wildcat Hour, which pushes you to do better so you can have that free time.”

“Liberty Time” offers many academic advantages; students will be able to have access to technology on campus, complete A+ tutoring, homework and test corrections, make up tests, quizzes and assignments, prep for ACT/AP/EOC, help students who have bad grades, receive teacher help and feedback and review for tests or study. It offers nonacademic benefits for students to eat lunch, attend club meeting/support groups and, also, unstructured privilege time.

Students will earn privilege cards according to grades, which means if students have poor grades they will be spending their time with teachers and will not be offered unstructured privilege time.

“We are trying to give a chance for students to get more help during the day, more contact with their teachers, and make it more flexible for students who ride the bus to and from school and can’t come in early or stay late,” Assistant Principal Dr. Gregory Mees said. “A lot of people have clubs and activities and sports that keep them from being able to get help from their teachers because they can’t do it before or after school when teachers are available.”

Along with this program’s noted successes at Blue Springs High School, there is also some room for improvement.  At Blue Springs, there was an issue of students leaving excessive amounts trash around the school. This caused custodians and staff members to pick up after the students.

“I know that there was a big deal at Blue Springs and they actually had to get rid of their open lunch for a week and go back to their regular schedule and then after that people were so upset with losing it that they picked everything up,” junior Kaylie Botello said.

Another question that arises is, can students be held accountable? Not all students want to spend lunchtime studying or are particularly motivated, especially during the middle of the day.

“That was something we were worried about when we went to view [Blue Springs High School] but when students are given such a treat they don’t take advantage of it and when they took it away they were all offended by it and wanted it back so they all worked together to keep it,” junior Addison Moore said.

Open lunch has also been a topic of interest lately. Open lunch refers to students having the opportunity to leave school during lunch hour. During that time, students can eat off campus. According to Dr. Mees, it will not be offered next year, but administration members are considering it for future years.

“Open lunch changes the freedom of students and there are some people that are concerned about a mass exodus of students, 700 cars leaving the parking lot at once and racing to get somewhere. There is a real safety issue with that. That is one of the biggest concerns that I have personally and that has been expressed to me,” Mees said.

Nothing has been set in stone yet in

regards to “Liberty Time,” however, the decision should be made in the months to come.