Recently, the administration at Eureka has announced the removal of A-day Flex next semester. This has been retracted as of October 25th. This is the second time Eureka’s Flex has been changed, then reimplemented.

Flex has proven to be popular among students. A petition started by Rockwood students to keep A-day Flex next semester had over 1,500 signatures. 

Flex has also been beneficial to students. Students now have time in the day to visit teachers if they need help, study for upcoming classes, and make up absent work. Despite all the benefits that come with Flex, there proves to be many flaws in the system. 

The first major problem with Flex is the availability of where students can go and the options of where they have to go. When students were presented the idea of Flex, we were told that there would be mini-classes, study sessions, test-prep, and club meetings. Many of these ideas haven’t been added to the schedule, which is typically overrun with office hours and quiet studies. And while these are helpful to many students, they aren’t as helpful to students who don’t have any particular place to go. Adding a more diverse activities during Flex would increase student participation and give students more things to do with their time. Flex should start featuring mini-classes, study sessions, test prep, and club meetings that students were under the impression they would receive. 

Scheduling has proven to be another issue with Flex. The first Flex change was due to the belief that it would affect the school hitting the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education requirements when it came to the amount of time students were in actual classes. However, this has been retracted in a statement sent out by the school on October 25th, where they stated that the schedule with Flex does hit the required time. The statement also said that the district would continue to look at the schedule and may make adjustments for next year. 

When it comes to the scheduling situation, what students are looking for overall is consistency. Students want to work with administration to make changes to Flex, rather than having changes show up in their email inbox every other week. The confusion surrounding Flex springs from the inconsistency in the schedule and giving students a consistent schedule would let Flex run more smoothly. 

While there can be changes made by administration, students should meet them halfway, and begin to fix some of the problems the administration has had. Student misuse of Flex has been a major concern of administration, so rather than using the atrium as an open study, students should begin finding classrooms that are fitting to their needs and the way they learn. 

Another concern is cleanliness around the school. While it may seem like a smaller issue, between bathrooms being destroyed and the courtyard being littered with trash, taking the extra step to make sure these places remain clean can help make the case for keeping Flex. 

While change after change can be implemented to Flex to try to make it work for both parties, Eureka High School and the Rockwood School District, in general, won’t be able to find a viable solution without student input. Whether this be through a student survey or a selected student committee that shows a wide variety of views, student input needs to be the greatest change made to Flex this year. Students are willing to share their input and opinions on Flex, but greater efforts should be made to assure that they are heard. Outreach to students and cooperation with them will be what changes Flex to work for not only the students themselves, but also for teachers and other administration working within the school.