As midnight Tuesday approaches, students are drowning in Honors Precalc problems and a 12-page AP World assignment. With fatigue already kicking in and still more to do, many will opt for a more reasonable choice: finish it in homeroom.

Well-rested and assured their work will still get done, these students walk into their homeroom the next day only to find they will not be able to finish it at all due to another administration-scheduled event.

Academic homeroom, ideally a period intended to visit teachers and do schoolwork, is seen as a saving grace for students. For students involved in sports, music, honors and AP classes or other activities outside of school, homeroom can make a significant difference in their workload. With the constant pressure to succeed, Homeroom gives students just what they need: quiet, independent time to think and be productive.

Instead of being a useful time for studying, however, academic homeroom has become a chaotic and confusing period used for administrative convenience.

According to Dr. Mike Havener, principal, homeroom was created in 2002 to take less class time away from both teachers and students. The initial reason homeroom came to be was to help students with schoolwork and give them time to visit teachers. The second, however, was the intention to also use this time for assemblies.

The administration’s heart may be in the right place by not wanting to take time away from the classroom, but the time designed to help students academically has been turned into nothing more than an administrative period. In the second semester alone, 60 percent of independent homeroom time is expected to be taken up with administrative events. With “must-hear” announcements, surprise assemblies, scheduled meetings and club pictures, students struggle to get anything productive done.

With most classrooms holding 20 students or more, homeroom provides them with the one-on-one time with teachers that may be difficult to find. Homeroom is a unique time for students to ask questions in private and get help when they would not be able to    otherwise.

Granted, certain assemblies or other scheduled events are necessary, and homeroom may be the most convenient time for those to be scheduled. However, while the staff receives a homeroom event calendar through e-mail at the beginning of each semester from Cathy McGrath, assistant principal and head of homeroom events, the students do not. Teachers are supposed to relay McGrath’s messages, but rarely do. If students were informed as often as the teachers were of what to expect, the wariness of lost time may be met with more cooperation.

Since there are so many required assemblies for students, the administrators should consider a more efficient idea, such as setting aside one day each month to use the last hour of school specifically for announcements and assemblies. A negotiable plan would even be to sacrifice one Wednesday every month for the purposes of the administrators in order to use the other three in the month for the benefit of the students.

Imagine a world where an assembly during homeroom was an exception instead of a rule. With the flexibility of both students and staff, this dream is not far from reality.