FRISCO, TEXAS – As the new school year rolls around and students return to a fresh start, they are faced with multiple changes to the routine that they experienced the previous year. Chief among these changes is a new lunch schedule, with three lunches (A, B, and C) instead of the previous four, which was decided by the principal after consultation with the administrators in school.

“One of the things we [the administrators] talked about was the challenge of turning over all of our lunches,” said Mrs. Henderson, the new principal at Centennial High School.

With only five minutes in the passing period between lunches, the cafeteria and courtyard have to be cleaned and sanitized each time, all while students are walking through, with the ones who had lunch going back to classes, and yet another batch of students coming in to have lunch.

“With three lunches, we could still utilize all the spaces we have available, and it gives us more time in between to make sure the cafeteria is clean and ready to go for each group,” Mrs. Henderson said.

While an ideal solution to the cleaning problem, this brings a new issue to the forefront. With just three lunches, most of the juniors and seniors have been packed into the last lunch, from 2:20 p.m. to 2:50 p.m. 

“There were like 900 kids in our lunch,” an anonymous senior said.

While it may seem like there has been an increase in the number of kids in the last lunch, the administrators and principal are aware of the situation, and are working to resolve it with the help of the early release option for juniors and seniors who are up to date with their credits.

“We were watching that over the first few weeks of school, and there’s always a rebalancing of lunches… [we] try to get most of the juniors and seniors into that last lunch because they are not going to stay,” said Mrs. Henderson.

With all the drawbacks as well as advantages that come with the new lunch schedule, the students will have to adjust to a new schedule that is, according to the principal, ultimately better for the students and the school.