After alarming news in mid-September of a category 4 hurricane heading straight towards the entire state of Virginia, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced a mandatory evacuation for residents in parts of the Hampton Roads area and Eastern Shore, Northern Neck, and Middle Peninsula. Within just a few days of preparing and waiting for Hurricane Florence’s arrival, the hurricane turned in direction and headed out of Virginia’s way. Students were happy to get a week-long mini break from school, but unfortunately the school board had to find a way to make up those missed days. The result? A 10 minute extension to each school day, starting October 1st, for the remainder of the year.

Editor-in-Chief, Laura Madler: ” I think that for some classes it might work to be an advantage. I have an AP science for my last block, so it’s not bad getting an extra 10 minutes, but overall it might’ve been effective if we had just taken away some half-days or days off, since those are all still there in January. The 10 minutes isn’t really going to help out significantly with instructional time, it’s just going to push back activities and schedules.”

Clubs and Activities Editor, Kelly Ritenour: “I feel like it kind of inconveniences a lot of students and families because there are a lot of students that work directly after school, and it takes a while in the first place to get out of the parking lot and get to work- having the extension is going to complicate it even more.”

Staff Writer, Beth Ellis: “I feel like there are alternate ways that we could’ve made up the time, like even going to school a couple of days on Saturday would’ve worked better because just adding 10 minutes to the last class isn’t really effective, in my opinion.”

Staff Writer, Alondra Rivera-Pena: “I think its kind of pointless and they’re just doing it because they need to for the legal aspect of it.”

Staff Writer, Leonela Cabral: “I’m glad we did 10 minute extensions instead of taking away or adding more school days in the year, but if you’re adding ten more, then I feel like you should have an even amount [of time] in each class, especially first period. Overall it doesn’t affect me for odd days because I leave early for Online Government.”