by Madizon Gonzalez and Alfonso Valero | staff writers
After eight continuous periods of classes and stacks of homework shoved in clear backpacks, 4:15 has arrived and for coaches, athletes, actors , and band students , such as freshman Bella Perez, the day is not even close to the end.
“I don’t really like getting out of school at this time but is kind of required for the band I’m in. I enjoy band but I just really wish the times weren’t so long,” Perez said. “I don’t really like it, because it doesn’t give me time for my schoolwork and I’m usually rushing because I don’t get to bed early. It messes with my learning and I feel tired all the time”.
Performance require more than just student time; affecting parents as they have to put in time when it comes to transportation.
“My parents take me home after band. [Band]’s really worthy in my opinion, especially if you win a lot of things,” senior Alexis Perez said. “I thinks it’s ok, it’s fun especially being in band and being productive with something. It’s kind of stressful though cause I get home late and I have a lot of homework to do”.
Along with students and their parents, band directors also have time intensive jobs.
“It depends on the day. Usually, when we have band rehearsal, we leave anywhere between 8 pm and 9 pm if the rehearsal ends at 7pm. We’ll leave about an hour later once all the kids are gone, or 9 pm. After that if it’s a football game, then we will leave significantly later so around 10:30 pm or 11 pm on a game that ends at the proper time,” band director, Rob Lozano said. “It’s all for the students, [so] it doesn’t really bother me. It’s all for the good of what we do to rehearse, and we stick to the UIL eight-hour rule and terms of how much we rehearse on a daily basis. I just see it as part of the job at this point, it’s not something that really bothers me at this point.”
It’s not just band students that spend lengthy hours at school outside of the usual 8:45 am to 4:15 pm. Athletes spend countless hours training before or after school to improve.
“Getting out at 4:15 is pretty good. I get to school at 6:30 because of cross country,” freshmen Ryan Keener said.
People working in school have to work lots of hours to make their job in the most efficient way possible, and that sometimes requires getting to school earlier.
“I get here at school at 7:45, I would come to school earlier and get out of school earlier,” librarian assistant Markeico Deuser said. “Getting out at 4:15 is kind of tricky because that is when everybody is getting out and that is when traffic is kind of bad, so I try to get here 5 minutes early so I can leave 5 minutes early, that way I can avoid traffic”.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, United States students spend an average of 6.64 hours a day in school, with about 180 average days in school year, compared to other schools in Texas durations of a school day are similar.
“I went to Churchill actually and we had a pretty similar competitive band program there and the hours there were pretty similar to what we have here at Johnson,” Lozano said.
