The 2022-23 School Year at Malden High has come with a whirlwind of changes. There have been a plethora of new school policies put in place as well as a plethora of opinions on said policies. However, to have an opinion, one must first understand what these policies are.
One of the biggest changes this year has to do with hall passes. As students and staff already knew, this has been a problem for a while. Students would take passes and lose them or never give them back, wander around in the halls with friends, and even just fully leave class or school.
This year, however, faculty has found a way to remedy these issues with a new digital SmartPass. The pass is also only available on laptops so that students do not use their phones to avoid trouble for taking too long.
The SmartPass has an allotted time given depending on where students are heading. For the bathroom, it is seven minutes. To enforce students to get back to class on time, an alert is sent to all faculty when a student’s pass expires.
There have also been rumors of detention if your pass expires, but nothing has been confirmed by the administration.
Another change to the school, which has probably received the most backlash, is the new phone policy. While levels of enforcement may vary from classroom to classroom, one thing is clear: cell phones are not permitted.
The policy states that phones, smartwatches, and headphones should be off and out of sight during class. If you get caught with it more than once it gets taken until the end of class. If it happens again, it is given to your house principal. It reaches a point where students’ cell phones can be taken up to four weeks, but faculty doubts this will happen.
Some teachers have decided to give five-minute breaks where students can use their phones to scratch their technological itch.
It has definitely had the most critique compared to any other policy this year. Still, many teachers believe that it has made a big improvement in student engagement.
Principal Chris Mastrangelo agreed and stated that there was, “No need to come in with a sledgehammer if a little tap was going to do the job.”
“No need to come in with a sledgehammer if a little tap was going to do the job.”
– Principal mastrangelo
However, the attendance measures taken to make students be on time is a close second. It has put a ban on students bringing in their own breakfast, most popularly from Dunkin’, and any drinks other than water.
All doors are locked after 7:50 and attendance is being taken a lot more seriously this year; students are encouraged to be on time and in class before 7:45.
Students are also being “graded” on their attendance for FLEX Block. It is a simple pass/fail system depending on attendance.
While the phone policy has had the most critique, the dress code has had the most controversy.
After years of pushing to make the dress code less targeted towards feminine presenting students and misogynistic, it seems the Feminism Club is still trying to update the dress code.
There was a Google Meet at the start of the year where the administration stated a different dress code than is being enforced which caused confusion among staff and students alike. Depending on what staff are around, some students will get dress coded and others will not.
Malden High’s new school year has come with lots of changes. It will take some adjusting to and it will not come without its hardships, but it is bound to be an interesting year.
