Student Life Editor
In the 2005-2006 school year, this conflict was tackled
with the proposal of an activity period, occurring twice a month during seventh
period. An activity period would allow students to attend club meetings during
school without the interference of after school extracurriculars.
When administrators approved the idea in October 2005, clubs reported
increased membership, and sponsors and students alike boasted increased
productivity and efficiency.
However, in February 2008, administrators decided to cancel the activity
period because “it did not meet the needs of clubs, and the benefits did not
outweigh the cost of loss instructional time.”
According to Dr. Stephanie Guy, many clubs were no longer convening
during the allotted time because their attendance was declining. Dedicated
members were often involved in more than one club, and they had to choose which
of their meetings to attend. Additionally, students who take classes outside of
Grafton, at either New Horizons or Governor’s School, could not attend activity
period meetings. “There were too many conflicts. We started the activity period
to give clubs a chance to meet with all their members. It was no longer
fulfilling that purpose,” said Guy.
Honor societies were the first clubs to stop using activity period and
opted for before and after school meetings. “Math Honor Society has not used
the activity period for the past two years, there are too many time conflicts
during the school hours. We can accomplish the same work during our meetings in
the morning or in the afternoon,” said junior Prakriti Verma, president of Math
Honor Society.
For SCA, Interact, and Key Club, the cancellation of activity period had
a greater impact. “We used the activity period to make peanut butter and jelly
sandwiches for the homeless. Although there are conflicts during seventh
period, there are more conflicts outside of school hours. Everyone is always so
busy,” said Lauren Clark, vice president of Key Club.
However, these three clubs were a minority. According to Dr. Guy, a
consensus amongst the other club sponsors revealed that a greater number would
not be affected by the change. For these
clubs, there was no point in trying to compete with other club meetings during
activity period when it was equally feasible to hold meetings outside of school
hours. “The overall response was that
ending activity period really would not have a great impact,” said Guy.
Although it was agreed that activity period
was not accomplishing the original purpose, the administrators wanted to
continue to use that time for student involvement. “In order to increase the
students’ voice, we decided to have each seventh period class in the school
choose one representative to attend an SCA meeting once a month,” said
Guy.
Effectively, the SCA is creating a network to receive feedback from the
entire student body. “Representatives come together to share input and discuss
upcoming events,” said Mr. Ellis, the SCA sponsor.
Dr. Guy believes that the idea of getting
students involved in clubs during school has its benefits. However, after two
and a half years of experimenting with the activity period, the time had not
proven efficient. “Activity period was initiated to give clubs a chance to meet
during the school day. If clubs were not meeting, then there was no longer a
need for activity period,” said Guy.