Clymer Central School’s Board of Education discussed the planned possible changes to the current “period zero” time of the school day. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

CLYMER — Clymer Central School’s “period zero” time added at the beginning of the day during this school year may be moving to the end of the day, following some teacher and staff feedback.

During the May Board of Education meeting, Principal Brianne Fadale said during her report that the idea behind changing some parts of the period zero time of the day — an extra period of time at the beginning of the school day, newly implemented this year for students who need help or more time for other types of activities like clubs — is to help structure that time better.

“We’re talking about adjusting the schedule,” Fadale said. “That’s been an ongoing conversation for months now, I feel like. Discussion about period zero in the morning and just feedback from teachers and staff about trying to structure that better and also try it at the end of the day so that when kids have to leave early for sports or whatever it’s less disruptive to core classes.”

Fadale said the goal is to still give kids that time where they have the choice to do activities of things they like and engage in but make sure there is a balance so classes can still have that class time that they need. Plans are still being finalized, but Fadale added that there were some ideas that she thought would be pretty neat when they were finalized.

As far as the morning times go, Fadale said kids would still arrive at school at 7:50 a.m., and for elementary there would not be a lot of adjustment, in that they would still get off the bus and go to morning jog or breakfast and then class. For older students, things are planned to shift back to where they were in the past, getting off the bus at 7:50 a.m., then going to breakfast and then homeroom and then start classes around 8 a.m.

Board members noted that for many students that extra time has been very helpful and that they were glad to see it was not going away. Superintendent Beth Olson said that the time would also be renamed and not be called period zero anymore, but something like an activity period instead.

“It’s going to be renamed, it’s not going to be that period zero anymore,” Olson said. “We’re moving away from that, but we’re looking at an activity period that has multiple purposes that if they need that extra help, or clubs can meet or they can do some of these other activities that we’ve talked about. Basically, we’re creating a non-stress time that they can engage in something else that they want to learn, that’s more hobby-based.”

Olson said that students can use that time as a study hall if they have things they need to do, and it will also help with students who need to leave early for sports and other clubs like FBLA, which is one of the main reasons they chose to move it to the end of the day. Additionally, Olson said there were some problems with accountability having that time at the beginning of the day.

“That slow start is what we called it, it’s hard to have accountability during that time, and that was the continual argument or concern of, we don’t know who’s actually in the building at this particular time, and although we haven’t started we still have things going on and the kids are still responsible for them,” Olson said. “So, we’re trying to help with that accountability piece and making that a required time of the day.”

Fadale said the time will continue to allow for the things that students really like to do, but having it at the end of the day will allow for the ability to have things such as taking attendance and knowing for sure where students are. Olson said more information will be communicated out to families when they know for a fact that the period will be moving to the end of the day and everything is finalized.