Last year, Lincoln Park students, for the first time in the school’s history, had a homeroom. Starting next year, the length of that homeroom period will more than double.
Homeroom for most schools is a brief period at the start of the day when attendance is taken, the pledge of allegiance is recited, and in some cases students listen to or are shown school-wide announcements, among other unique traditions that vary from school to school.
Most public schools which follow a strict schedule have a homeroom. Starting last year, Lincoln Park is no longer an exception to the rule.
Given that homeroom is such a new addition to the schedule, there were bound to be some bumps in the road regarding its implementation.
Having two years of homeroom experience under our belt, it has now been decided that the 15 minutes given to it just aren’t enough.
From an administrative perspective, it did its job. The attendance got taken. However, problems quickly became evident. Many homerooms struggle to show the announcements on time or at all. Problems continue to arise from a student perspective.
Most students can relate to the dreadful experience of having homework due without having enough time to get it done.
In most public schools, this would be done during a study hall period, where students have time to study for tests, complete assignments, and make up for absences. However, Lincoln Park hasn’t had a study hall since the removal of the LI block.
The result is that this work ends up taking up time in the student’s day, and during other classes. Given that homeroom provides students with no commitments beyond showing up, some have taken to attempting to use it to get that work done, but ultimately most came to the conclusion that it just isn’t enough time.
With only 15 minutes, it becomes little more than a hiccup at the start of every student’s day. To mitigate this issue, the decision was made to extend homeroom to 50 minutes.
Taking effect at the start of the 2026-2027 school year, this change will give teachers the time required to show the announcements in class, and students the additional time that they have been lacking in recent years.
While the first 45 minutes will still require students to be in their assigned homerooms, during the latter 5, with permission from both teachers, students are able to go to other rooms on campus. This is specifically to allow students to make up work that they may have missed.
The hope is that giving students this extra time will reduce the frequency of unfinished or unsubmitted assignments, especially work missed due to absences.
