How does sleeping in on a school day or leaving school a little earlier than everyone else sound?

A lot of seniors think it’s a great idea and take the opportunity when offered; however, as much as seniors would enjoy this luxury being both semesters, it only takes place during second semester.

Seniors must fill out an application and specify which they believe to work best with their schedule or, in some cases both late start and early release, during their first semester and from their councelors will work to situate schedules.

Depending on school schedules, as a senior, a student can apply for early release for reasons such as wanting to work more, having an internship, or to take classes through the community college.

Others may apply for late start because they may work late in the evenings and stay up late doing homework and those couple hours before school could benefit them.

A special handful of seniors are also eligible for both late start and early release because their schedule is able to fit it in.

These options, the school board believed, help accommodate seniors who couldn’t or didn’t want to do early graduation, but can still get a couple hours of school cut out of their schedules.

Rickiya Miller, senior, has early release and is able to leave after her fifth hour.

“I decided late start would work better for me because now I can go to work earlier and get a better paycheck as I look to move out after high school and go to college,” Miller said.

Just as Miller, Katy Beckingham, senior, is doing the same and taking the opportunity to get a little more work in before leaving home to go to college.

“If you’re willing to work more, have your prerequisites already met, and are working towards graduation and post secondary education, then early release is a good idea,” Beckingham said.

With the spare time after school, Beckingham is able to work, study, finish homework and visit family, finding to be personally more beneficial than late start.

“Late start should only be used if volunteering. Sleeping in is pointless because you still have to go to school in the end,” Beckingham said.

However, Trey McClelland, senior, found it better for him to do late start due to baseball conditioning in the spring.

“Since I have baseball practice and conditioning after school this semester, it would have been pointless for me to leave early just to come back a couple hours later,” McClelland said.

This way after a late night of practice and games, even though he may lose a couple of hours in the evening, McClelland is able to get those back with getting a couple extra hours of sleep in the mornings.

Multiple students have found both late start and early release to be beneficial depending on their personal schedules

They have used these extra hours in the morning and afternoon to help not only give them a little break from school, but to finish their last year of high school and prepare for college.