By: Kara Haselton

Change is a natural part of life. When students go back to school in August, it always seems that a lot has changed over the summer. This year has been no exception.

It has been only the first few weeks of the 2015-2016 school year, and yet many changes have already taken place. The biggest change would be the new Husky Academy for current and future freshmen that results in the isolation of new freshman, except for during elective classes.

Another exciting development relates to the point scale changing from seven-point to ten-point. A lot of students are very excited about this change, since it allows a better chance for regular B or C students to get A’s. “The change I like most this year is the ten point grading scale,” comments junior Emma Jones, “I’m so excited because it gives students a better chance at doing better in their classes.”

In addition to the expected adjustments, other unforeseen changes have been announced only at the beginning of this year.The warning bells, for example, are not being used. In the past, a bell has been rung between classes to signal students that they have one minute to get to class. Taking away this warning bell has confused and angered some students. Daniel Katowitz, a sophomore, says, “I don’t like how there is no one minute warning bell between classes because I have no idea how much time is left before class starts.” Nonetheless, Dr. Savage thinks that not having the one minute warning bells will benefit the students and will help them get to class on time more often; “Leadership decided to drop the warning bell this summer two reasons: One, we found the days when we did not have a tardy bell, we had less students waiting around until they heard the late bell prior to running to class. Secondly, we already have many bells during the day and by eliminating those 4 foghorn bells we may have less disruption,” he stated. Students may want their beloved one minute bell to come back, but for this year at least, they are going to have to deal with its absence.

Some students have also been annoyed by the now stricter headphones rule. In years past, teachers would allow students to use headphones to listen to music while working, but the devices just weren’t allowed in hallways. However, administration decided to alter that rule, and prohibited headphones in the classroom and hallways.

Some of these new policies may be difficult for students at first, but as the year goes on it could prove to have a positive effect.

We asked some students and teachers what changes from last year they liked or disliked:

“I have more freedom and people treat like an adult” -Mike Phipps (Freshman)

“I don’t like how there is no ‘one minute warning bell’ between classes because I have no idea how much time is left before class starts.” Daniel Katowitz (Sophomore)

“The change I like most this year is the ten point grading scale! I’m so excited because it gives students a better chance at doing better in their classes.” Emma Jones (Junior)

“I think the biggest change that has taken place this year is the Husky Academy, I teach one of their classes and I think it’s been a really good change for these students, I’ve really seen them grow from it. Another thing that the upperclassmen are going to have to get used to is the stricter “no headphone” policy. I think a lot of them are mad about it and are just going to have to get used to it.” (Ms. Winstead)