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Photo by Sid Talukder

Students come to school early to work on their assignments in various places like the Innovation Hub. Another option is get help from teachers before school on Thursday and Friday.

Office hours are a new addition for the 2021-2022 school year, which allows students to come into school early to get help from their teachers. 

Office hours take place during Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 7:55 through 8:35, and these 40 minutes are there to benefit students. 

Ben Kochanny, sophomore, has been going to office hours since the beginning of the school year.“

“Office hours [are] really beneficial to not only me, but most students,” Kochanny said. “I’m always at the school during office hours because I take the bus so I get to school pretty early. It gives me a chance to finish up homework I didn’t get to last night, go talk with a teacher about a concept I’m not familiar with. It’s a great way for me to manage my time, and helps make my school life a little bit easier.”

However with the addition of office hours this year, there has been a change to the normal schedule students and staff were used to, but Kochanny says the new schedule has not had too much of an effect on him. 

“I actually enjoy how we have three late starts this year compared to only one last year, and I like how students still have the opportunity to come in early if they want to,” Kochanny said.

Even though office hours are meant to benefit the students, it has also made some teachers’ lives easier; Jeff Bartlett, Math teacher, says that office hours help with his overall teaching. 

“Personally for me, especially in a math class, I know it can be tough getting certain information and concepts, especially with a lot of other kids in the classroom. However, office hours give an opportunity to those students to go over things they might not understand, and you don’t just have to go to your own teacher. There are a lot of other options out there, especially for different classes, like the math resource center for example,” Bartlett said.

Students go in for office hours for many different reasons, but Bartlett says he “personally  [sees] a lot of my students go in for STEM classes.”

 “I think it’s great they’re taking advantage of that opportunity that without office hours they might have not had previously, and I think it’s setting new boundaries,” Bartlett said.

According to Peter Nadler, assistant principal, math is the most attended class for office hours but, “[all] subjects are well attended. Math, Science, and English all see over 60 students per day during office hours, while other departments see over 30. Also we are always looking to improve our practices. If we can utilize that time in a different way to get assistance to our students, we’ll try it. For now though, we want to acknowledge the hard work our teachers are doing to make office hours productive.”

With the system in place for almost a semester now, there has been success according to Nadler however, there are still ways to make the system better. 

“We are always looking to improve our practices. If we can utilize that time in a different way to get assistance to our students, we’ll try it,” Nadler said. “For now though, we want to acknowledge the hard work our teachers are doing to make office hours productive.” 

Nadler  says the overall goal “is to increase our students’ access to their teachers for extra help in class or just to connect.”

 “We want to offer the LZHS students a safe place to go and get help if they’re in need,” Nadler said. “We also utilize that time to get social-emotional help to students who cannot access it during the school day for one reason or another.”