Regardless of if it’s because of sleeping through an alarm or getting your reluctant Brophy carpool to drive you to school slightly earlier than he wants, all Xavier students have experienced the dreaded feeling of knowing they’re going to be late to homeroom.
Unlike many high schools around the country, Xavier starts at 7:45 a.m. This is because Xavier dedicates these 10 minutes to a “homeroom” period: a short class period in which all students listen to announcements before going to first period.
Like in an official class, a student will be given a tardy for missing homeroom, which can result in getting a detention if the student receives three tardies. Hundreds of students have likely received at least one tardy for their lack of timeliness to homeroom, so why does Xavier have a dedicated time for homeroom?
Although the extra time in homeroom in the morning may seem unnecessary, Denise Macrina, assistant principal and dean of students, says that homeroom has been a tradition within the school for decades and provides a unique opportunity.
“There is a bonding opportunity for students during homeroom because you may not see each other for the rest of the day,” Macrina says.
She recognizes that diverse schedules may make students unable to connect informally with peers in class, so homeroom provides a time to chat with friends.
Without the chance that homeroom provides, Macrina believes that Xavier would lose the sense of community the school has maintained for decades.
Sister Joan Fitzgerald, president of Xavier, also believes that homeroom is beneficial for students.
She believes that this dedicated time provides students the opportunity to become organized for the day and socialize before classes begin.
Homeroom “provides time to get organized for the day and gives opportunity for announcements rather than interrupting classes,” Fitzgerald said.
Personally, the extra time in the morning to attend homeroom induces a lot of stress for me. Half of the time I walk into the class stressed because I almost missed the bell.
Although this can be avoided by leaving earlier, sometimes additional minutes to my ETA are unavoidable. Car accidents and traffic are not predictable; I could leave at the same time every day and arrive at school at different times simply because of traffic.
Keeping this in mind, I’ve wondered if there has ever been discussion about changing this tradition. What if homeroom were moved to a different time of the day? Some faculty members believe that the change could cause students to miss important announcements, if they left school early.
“Having announcements being said at the beginning of the day, as opposed to other schools that may do it during the middle of the day, is more efficient because you may have kids who’ve left school by that later time,” said Macrina.
Many students see the benefits of an early homeroom.
Olivia Stanton ‘28 enjoys the chance to talk with her friends before first period officially starts. “I love being able to see my friends and be in a low-stress environment before I have to go to class. It really helps me wake up,” Stanton said.
Noelani Romo ‘27 shares a slightly different stance regarding homeroom. “I enjoy having a chance to hang out with friends in homeroom before classes actually start, but the extra fifteen minutes in the morning can be frustrating.”
Unlike Stanton and Romo, I believe that getting more sleep in the morning would make me more relaxed in comparison to the quality-time homeroom provides for students.
It may be frustrating to hassle your carpool or start driving earlier than you would like, but homeroom is not going anywhere.
