This year at Wakefield High School, the administration has decided to introduce “Wolverine Hour,” a once-monthly hour of time that takes place during students’ lunch and provides a time to makeup work, get involved with collaborative events and socialize with friends. This has been widely well-received, but, just like most things, Wolverine Hour can only exist as long as everyone plays by the rules.

Throughout the lunch, staff members roamed the halls with the students, and some faculty were even stationed at popular off-campus spots like Mcdonald’s and Sheetz.

School principal Malik Bazzell also saw a few areas for improvement in the conduct of Wolverine Hour, specifically the choice of activities among the students.

“We want more students involved in some of the various activities we’ve established for students because we can’t have everybody out and about at the same time,” Bazzell said. “We would appreciate feedback on the activities we’ve provided.”

For students looking for something to do, the media center is always doing something new and unique each Wolverine Hour, but if there is a specific activity not currently offered, students can provide feedback by reaching out to Bazzell or another administrator in person or via email.

However, despite some of its shortcomings, many students and staff members enjoyed Wolverine Hour. Plenty of students, including sophomore Jackie Regan, took advantage of some of the positives of the hour, including its intended purposes, like academics.

“I enjoyed the extra time I could use to get stuff done, like homework,” Regan said.

Wolverine Hour was meant to provide students with time to catch up on work, as it did for Regan, which also applies to many teachers. Biology teacher Eric Schacht was able to use the time to provide his students with assistance, and also use the hour to make his job easier.

“I had three students come in and catch up on a test,” Schacht said.“I didn’t have to stay after school or at lunch [because of that].” 

As expected, many upperclassmen took advantage of their off-campus passes and ended up leaving the campus and going to popular local dining spots like Chipotle, Mcdonald’s and Chick-Fil-A. However, some utilized their time differently, like Brogan Burnett, a senior, who organized a cook-out with his friends during the hour lunch period.

“During Wolverine Hour, me and my buddy Teagan, decided to go to his house and we had a grill-out,” Burnett said. “If we have Wolverine Hour again we plan to have another get-together, [we might] plan something with people in our grade, or maybe even the senior and sophomore (classes).”

Experiences like Burnett’s definitely weren’t the norm for lunch here at Wakefield. But, in the future, this could change, as students get more creative, assuming teachers and administrators allow it. Generally, it seems like students and teachers agree that Wolverine Hour is beneficial and would like to see it stay going forward.

 Bazzell acknowledges that students and their conduct were not perfect, but believes that Wolverine Hour can stick around as long as students keep up the behavior demonstrated in the pilot run.

“There were some kinks because there were some students that were unfamiliar with our long lunch,” Bazzell said. “We’re more than willing to continue Wolverine Hour as long as students don’t demonstrate inappropriate conduct,”