Mother Nature’s wrath may soon no longer influence how many short summer days you must sacrifice for your textbooks.

A new policy put into place by the Sioux Falls School District removes one minute from each passing period between classes during the day, which can accumulate over time to fill one missed school day at LHS. First enforced on Mar. 6, it aims to make up for the large, gaping hole in the schedule caused as the result of several large snowstorms. In normal years, this would need to be filled by several, consecutive make-up days at the end of the year, however the district has waived these in hopes of trying out the newer system of taking time out of the existing schedule.

Some are skeptical of how effective this new system will be. Taking into consideration how big LHS is, students will now have less time to pack up and get between classes, which is cause for more in-class interruptions, such as needing to go to the bathroom during an important lecture. Combined with the stresses of the new eHallpass system, this may cause an even larger gap in learning due to teachers needing to stop learning to approve the pass and ensure the student is being monitored while they go to their specified destination.

In addition to interrupting learning, removing only one minute does not cover the rest of the missing days that the district has experienced this year. The total, which is around four or five, has been debated about how to effectively solve. Among potential solutions, possibly limiting student schedules even MORE than they currently are, perhaps by now taking learning time out of class periods themselves. There is no doubt that some of the less learning-inclined students have cheered at this idea, while some teachers are fearful for less hours worked, and thus lower paychecks possible. Teachers who have missed school days will still have to work to fill the days missed, regardless of when the school year ends for students.

Will the district’s new time-sorting system benefit us in the long run? Or, will the district give in and return to the old ways of halting our summers? It is definitely not a choice that can be decided easily; you will have to wait for the bell to ring to really find out.