Change. A word Deby High students have been hearing a lot recently.

With the new 2018-2019 school year in full swing, students have been noticing lots of changes.

One thing many students are having a hard time with is the cutting down of passing period.

“I don’t like the fact that passing period is shorter, you don’t have enough time to go to the restroom. And, if you ask then you go, you miss the few minutes of class. I’d rather get out at 3:12 than 3:10 if it meant a longer passing period.” Danielle Wheeler said.

Passing period in the previous years was six minutes long, now that has changed to five minutes. Ashlyn Struble also disagrees with shorter passing periods.

“I dislike the passing period being cut short by a minute,” Struble said.

Homeroom is a shorter class that has taken several changes over the years. In previous years it has been in the middle of the day and some students experienced it in the beginning. This year it has been moved to the end of the day.

“We made this switch for two reasons after several years of making observations and gathering data. The first reason is the biggest and that is that all paraprofessionals, those adults that help our students with special needs, are dismissed from work at 2:40.  This means that for almost 30 minutes each day, our students would lose that help,” principal Tim Hamblin said.

Passing period and homeroom weren’t the only changes made. Last year the high school students were each given access to MacBooks; this year the the students were given Chromebooks.

“Personally I don’t like the Chromebooks. It doesn’t have the same features as Mac and I don’t know how to work it very well. They run very slow and the batteries dies kinda quick.” Emma Palmer said.

These are just a few of the changes made but obviously the school had a reason for them.     

“If students and parents support this change and follow the rules and choose not to abuse it the change will benefit the school,” Hamblin said.