The new Flex system allows teachers time for extra planning, meetings, or a break. Each department gets a day when their students go to the cafeteria. If students have a hard pass from another teacher, they will be allowed to leave the cafeteria or the class they are in.

Christopher Dowdell is a U.S. history teacher here at Chapman. “I like there is time built in, for teachers to get some work done once a week and get some collaboration in,” said Dowdell.

The old Flex lets students have free time for extra help, time for studying, time to see friends. Junior Mayla Vang prefers the original system. “I kinda feel like it’s just more work to go from another class to the cafeteria, how it has to change around different halls. I feel like it’s not really our time for freedom like it used to be,” said Vang.

The old flex was canceled due to COVID-19. Students then got an extra 25 minutes in their second block for free time to do whatever they needed to do or leave with a pass.

“I like the original design of it, what we were supposed to do before we had to cancel it, I thought that was good,” said Dowdell.

Juno Laws is a senior that doesn’t agree with the new changes to flex. “I don’t like it at all. I think if they’re going to have it, then it should be passes only. I don’t think the cafeteria is very beneficial at all,” said Laws. Flex time now is still mostly the same as the last Flex, but now it allows students and teachers a little more freedom from the classroom.

 Fara Stewart is a U.S. history teacher here at Chapman. “I prefer the original Flex policies that were used during the fall semester,” said Stewart. “Unfortunately, there were too many students who were not using Flex time responsibly and this ruined the opportunity for all. Many other high schools are able to successfully implement a flex-type system successfully. I hope that our student body will soon show enough maturity to return to the original Panther Flex plan.”

Although the old Flex did have problems, it allowed freedom for both students and teachers. The system should have had a few more rules. 

“I don’t think the new Flex system is as effective as the old flextime,” said Stewart. “The intent was to allow students to have the freedom to make their own educational decisions. Students were given the freedom and responsibility of choosing to get extra help from teachers, makeup tests, work on homework, or attend club meetings,” 

Flex could now be confusing due to multiple changes. The system should be a set of rules that can stay the same. 

“I think that it’s better if we just have the students go wherever, but since that’s not an option really anymore, I say definitely the students stay, passes to wherever,” said Laws.