At the end of the 2023-24 school year, many had come to accept that, for the 2024-25 school year, there would not be any special homerooms. Instead, students would all be in a homeroom with people in their grade, alphabetically.
This change occurred due to the expansion of the Leader In Me program from the Freshman Seminar class, which all freshmen had to take during the 2023-24 school year, to a school-wide Leader In Me period. In comparison to the previous year’s freshman seminar class, many agree that this year’s approach to the program is better: it takes up less time, isn’t occupying a full year course slot that could otherwise be used for electives and the class is much more structured and planned out.
However, with this change came another one: taking away special homerooms.
Special homerooms allowed for clubs and other groups within the school to have a time during the school day for involved students to be together. This benefitted the group, as it gave members a time to talk during the school day. Rather than exclusively happening before/after school, members could have discussions that were important for the functioning of the group during the day. People could more easily collaborate on ideas, get clarity on plans, review procedures, get advice from people who had more knowledge than them or give advice to those who needed it and much more.
Special homerooms were very important for many clubs to properly function.
However, without them, members often cannot all communicate with each other during the school day; they are reliant on meetings before and/or after school to talk about anything involving their group or club. It also benefited the students in the homeroom, as it allowed them to be with their friends to begin their day.
For the 2025-26 school year, special homerooms need to come back. Because the Leader In Me program likely isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, if special homerooms are brought back, they will not be the same as they were before. While, ideally, special homerooms would be able to come back exactly the same as they were before, for now, that is not a realistic goal.
In bringing special homerooms back, the first step has to be offering single grade special homerooms. For example, if a club wants to offer a special homeroom to its senior members, the club should be able to do so. This way, the Leader In Me period for each grade can still be held, but special homerooms can, too.
