Jocelyn Ortiz

Mr. Gardner

Period 4

12 May 2021

Destruction of Flex

Dear Brighton High Administration,

The past year has been quite eventful due to the pandemic. Many accommodations have

been made at Brighton, but one in particular has not been as useful as intended, Flex period.

Although Brighton has tried its best to provide students with the opportunity to do homework, it

has unfortunately not addressed other issues. Some of these issues include declining mental

health in students due to the pandemic, the lack of sleep, and tardiness. If these aspects could be

improved it would create a healthier environment for students as well as increase academic

performance.

The pandemic has drastically affected the mental health of many students at Brighton. All

the adjustments from virtual classes to in person hit students hard and was overwhelming.

Although Flex has been provided, there are better options, such as removing Flex and delaying

the school start time by 40 mins. According to the Sleep Foundation, Suni focuses on the

negative effects teens’ lack of sleep causes, he shares, “Prolonged sleep loss may negatively

affect emotional development, increasing risks for interpersonal conflict as well as more serious

mental health problems” (Suni). This means that Brighton students’ mental health could improve

if they got more sleep. Unfortunately, if the schedule were to match the later start time, Brighton

would have less instructional time. You would need to add the 5 mins to each class period to

make up for it. That way, less students would be sleep deprived. In order to measure Students’
improvement in their mental health, student’s could do a self reflection of mental health

improvement. At the end of each trimester, they could anonymously be asked whether they feel it

has improved compared to previous years.

As previously stated, many students at Brighton High are sleep deprived. In an interview

held by Brighton High School Student Jocelyn Ortiz, she asked a student and teacher about Flex

period and its usefulness. When Jocelyn asked the student, “Do you believe that your academic

performance increases as you receive more sleep?” The student said yes because she would be

able to work faster and be more efficient in school (Oritz). This means that if the school start

time were delayed, students would improve academically. Gathering the students’ gpa average at

the end of every trimester compared to previous years could be used to measure success.

Many students at Brighton High also struggle with attendance, specifically tardiness. Due

to the removal of No grades because of the pandemic, many students arrive late due to the “lack

of consequences” but in reality many students struggle with getting up. In fact, according to the

survey, the average amount of sleep they get each night is 5.5 hours (Ortiz). Not having a Flex

period assigned to students would allow for a delayed school start time, creating more time to get

to school on time. Evaluations on how often students show up late to school could be made to

track progress, the tardies in one trimester compared to the (2020-2021) school year with Flex.

Brighton is a spectacular school and the delayed school start time due to the removal of Flex in

order to improve student’s performance and health would make it so much better. When taking

the action plan into consideration, please keep in mind students’ well being, they are our future!
 Works Cited

Forbush, Christiana. Personal Interview, 7 May 2021

Jocelyn Ortiz. Necessity of Flex Survey. Salt Lake City, Utah: Brighton High School. 2 May

2021. Web.

Spaulding, Miah. Personal Interview, 7 May 2021

Suni, Eric. Sleep for Teenagers. 5 Aug. 2020, www.sleepfoundation.org/teens-and-sleep.

Accessed 01 April 2021