PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – Central High School is beginning its school year with a new schedule. Students will now only attend class four days a week.
School staff believe this will help students balance school and work.
“We had a lot of students with high absenteeism rates because they had to work,” said Jeremy Knapp, principal of Central High School.
Knapp says students don’t have classes on Fridays.
“They can work longer weekends, they can start when they finish on Thursday and work all day on Friday and Saturday and Sunday,” Knapp said. “The extra income has helped them and their families so much.”
The lecture-free Friday saves students travel costs.
“Even though the kids are here for four days, we’re still here for five days,” Knapp said. “We have that extra day to really look at the information and see how we can help our students.”
Staff are confident that the shortened week will take some of the burden off students’ shoulders.
“We have a lot of kids who work night shift jobs,” Knapp said. “They start at 4 p.m. Thursday night and work from 4 p.m. to midnight Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night and have a full schedule and come Monday morning ready to go.”
They believe this will also benefit the mental health of their students.
“It benefits their mental health because they’re not as stressed and they’re not wondering how they’re going to go to school, how they’re going to work, how they’re going to do all of that during the school year,” Knapp said. “They can just shut down on Thursday and not think about school until Monday. They can really focus on their work and how they can be successful there.”
Central High School will continue to have a four-day school week.
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