As of the 2016-2017 school year, the new OLCHS principal Dr. Jeana Lietz introduced a bell schedule that features eleven periods plus an option that is new to the student body this year; zero period. This option is available to students that want to take an extra course, which starts before school at 6:50am every day except Wednesday.

However, to all students that chose not to enroll in a zero period class, the official start time of first period this year has been moved back from 7:45am to 8:32am and Wednesday late starts are to begin at 9:20am instead of 8:50am.

Students are also being offered two extra periods throughout the day specifically to support each student’s own personally assigned resource room in addition to social-emotional learning activities during Advisory period (period three) and Spartan Plus (period four).

Spartan Plus replaces the school’s already existing Access periods, and instead every student is offered the option to visit quiet study halls, help in a specific subject, or visit the media center on everyday but Wednesday. Periods three and four do not meet on Wednesdays, so technically the students are to go from period two directly to their fifth period class.

With all these changes made, some sacrifices were definitely in order.

All lunch periods are 24 minutes long during periods 5 to 9, and some students also have a “split-lunch” period, which means one class will be split in half and the student will be assigned to that classroom for 24 minutes before and after lunch. Teachers do, however, have the ability to keep the students for a full consecutive period for quizzes and tests, which means the students could have a different lunch schedule on any day.

Though drastic, these changes permit students to sleep more, focus on their own success, and offers new ways for academic enrichment.