Mayfield High School administration is very interested in removing homeroom for the 2019-2020 school year.

Principal Jeff Legan says he’s very excited for this change. He said, “Yes, I would love to have no homeroom but next year we’re not going to be able to make it happen. We are looking at the year 2019-20 in order to eliminate homeroom.”

Many people wonder why homeroom will be removed. Legan said, “The reasons why we want to eliminate homeroom: one, we think that it’s really a waste of 20 minutes, and the reason I say 20 minutes is because with passing time and everything, that’s 20 minutes of potential instruction that you can have or just, utilize that time better. We want to take a look at having some kind of advisory period where it’s put in the middle of the day.”

An advisory period could be used in multiple ways. Legan said, “It would be like a homeroom, but you would also have a teacher that is looking over your grades, having conversations with you, building a relationship over the four years that you’re here. You would always have that teacher during that advisory time. And we would hopefully show live announcements at that time as well as go over some academic advice.”

There have already been multiple steps taken to make this change happen. Legan said, “We’re going to have next year TV’s in the cafeteria that’s just going to scroll information that you would normally hear over the announcements, but we’re taking the steps to just try to make this happen in 19-20.”

There have been some challenges coming up with this idea, according to Jarrod Mulheman, the assistant principal for curriculum, instruction, and staff development. He said, “We’re always looking around, but it really started with our scheduling committee, which is made up of teachers, just trying to look at our school day and making sure that we are doing it in the best way that meets the needs of our kids……The funny thing about it is, if there was one best way to do a high school schedule, everybody would do it.”

Administration believes there are many positives to removing homeroom. Legan said, “For one, I think building a relationship with a staff member from when you’re a freshman. You’ll have that go to person for four years, you’ll be able to confide in them and ask them for help, but also you have someone that’s looking over your grades and that can give you advice that can have a lasting impact on your high school success.”

Junior John Razzante is fond of the idea of no homeroom. He said, “It makes sense because we take attendance in each class so there is really no point for homeroom. It just wastes more time.”

Junior Anthony Ditomas also sees positives in the change. He said, “It will be a big change for sure, but I think it would take a lot of stress off students that miss homeroom. So, overall, I think it could be a good change.”

Razzante is also very interested in the advisory period that could be offered. He said, “Yes, that would be a better way to manage that time during the day and would be way more useful than homeroom.”

Legan also has a few directions he’d like to go with this in the future. He said, “Along with this advisory period, we’re also looking at a potential flex period, which would be a break in the middle of the day and we would give kids choice, potential choice, for like 20 minutes, whether they want to go play basketball, have a meeting with their club, or yoga. We know that everyone needs a break at some point during the day. Eight periods is long, especially to those that don’t have a break.”