Wake up. Get to school early for club meetings. Finish classes. Head to sports practice. Shower. Dinner. Sleep. Repeat.

Between extracurriculars, class and sports, students and teachers can be in school for 11+ hours per day. Throughout this time, many students only get a 25 minute lunch break to eat, relax and socialize with friends.
FHSD is looking to implement power lunches, which would provide students and faculty with a 50 minute period used for studying, intervention, eating and relaxing. Students would be allowed to sit in many places around the school, such as hallways, the library and classrooms. Teachers would be assigned a 25 minute lunch period and could use the remaining time to schedule time with students and hold club meetings.

Power lunch would be a positive improvement to the FHN community and would help the productivity of students and parents and should be instituted in the 2020-21 school year.
Giving students the freedom to go wherever they want in the school for an hour might seem like a daunting idea to many. However, with the right system to hold students accountable, power lunches can be very helpful for student mental health by providing them time to eat their lunches and take a mental health break. Students can have time to relax instead of constantly worrying about their next class or assignment.
While having time to relax will be beneficial to students, there should be limits in place to help the system be successful. In order to make expectations clear to all students, training should be given at the beginning of the year about the power lunch system, where they can go and what they can do. If a student begins to fail multiple classes, they should also be placed in a mandatory study hall for half of the lunch period to get supervision and support from teachers while guaranteeing work time to catch up on assignments. Students should also be held accountable for keeping the school clean throughout the lunch. Power lunches should be seen as a privilege to students and faculty should not be scared of taking away power lunches to ensure students can handle the responsibility of having more free time.

This time could also be very beneficial for teachers without increasing their current workload. Teachers could schedule time with students to make up tests and quizzes during the power lunch, resulting in less time spent before and after school. This time could also be used to meet with other teachers or to spend time with students outside of a traditional classroom setting to build strong bonds.
Between sports, extracurriculars, and normal classes, days can get long and hectic for many at FHN. Help build our FHN community by giving students a much needed break throughout the day.