The previous policy regarding a student’s ability to have an athletic study hall in addition to a regular study hall had been lightly enforced. Last semester, it began to be enforced, only to later be questioned why it existed and whether or not it was necessary.

The policy previously stated “the student must have a full schedule (periods 1-10) without a study hall for any of the 2 options,” with the two options being to take another credit course or to have an athletic study hall.

“After much deliberation and discussion [about whether or not to allow students to have both, a decision was made],” Director of Curriculum Scott Eggerding said. “There was much rejoicing and the section got rewritten.”

The previous policy has been waived and the section was rewritten for the following school year’s Academic Program Guide (APG) in the Physical Welfare section, allowing students that participate in IHSA athletics to be exempt from gym with an athletic study hall in addition to a regular study hall.

“Really it just took revising of the policy to match what we’ve always been doing,” Principal Dr. Brian Waterman said. “It just made sense to us that if we have a student involved in any courses along with athletics and they’re struggling to find a time to study, why would we hold that against them.”

The change in the policy makes it easier for students, like Tommy Kaptur ‘15, who have heavy course loads to simply sign the form for an athletic study hall while already having a regularly scheduled study hall.

“It makes more sense since that’s what they’ve always been doing,” Kaptur said. “If it had always been enforced, it wouldn’t be as big of a deal, but since they just suddenly changed it, it was bad for people that scheduled a lot of hard classes thinking that they could get two study halls.”

The rule first showed up in the APG in 1994, because previously, students only had to schedule six periods per day and the current graduation course requirements were not in place, such as having four years of English and three years of math. It had been decided that in order meet the requirements, students could only have one study hall, Eggerding said.