Thomas Jefferson administration brings back hall sweeps in order to decrease the growing number of student tardies.
Photo by Mia Nogueira
Thomas Jefferson administrators wanted to start the spring of 2011 off with a clean fresh start, so when spartans come back from spring break Mike Christoff and Scott Lessard decided to work together and bring back the hall sweeps during first and sixth period, in order to decrease the number of tardies at TJ with the hope that each hall sweep will have a successful impact on the students.
“We have chosen to do hall sweeps because we have had a total of 13,439 tardies last semester and 14,073 tardies this semester through February,” stated Christoff. They have chosen to administer hall sweeps during first and sixth periods in order to get Spartans to their classes on time. Christoff says Hall sweeps will last for the rest of the year and for the future years until the tardy percentage decreases and students are getting to class on time.
Christoff says that any student caught in the halls after the second bell rings during a hall sweep is late and gets collected by teachers, administers, or security guards and are expected to go to the pass room to check in and get a pink slip. “Students will have to serve lunch detention or after school detention for twenty minutes. If they do not attend detention a call home will be the next step. If they still don’t attend the next detention they will have to serve lunch detention for the rest of the week, and if that doesn’t work students will get a referral or have to be placed on in-school suspension,” said Christoff.
Assistant Principal Scott Lessard has very high standards for students to be on time to class and to be prepared. Lessard says hall sweeps are a great way to challenge students to get to class on time because no one wants to serve the consequences of detention, and it is more about success in the classroom than about tardies. “Students that are in class perform better in school; unfortunately, this year we have a group of students that have decided to be late to class on a regular basis. Our hope is that by doing hall sweeps we can provide support to the teachers by getting kids to class in a timely fashion so they have a better chance of being successful. Hall sweeps are one way to respect the students who have an occasional tardy, but challenge the students who are tardy on a regular basis to do a better job with the intent that all students will do better in class,” said Lessard.
Lessard says if students do not take the hall sweeps during first and sixth period seriously the administration will take control and will bump it up to more hall sweeps during other periods. “Students need to be in class on time, everyday,” says Lessard.
The administrators’ plan is to have the number of tardies decrease by two percent, starting with freshmen, who Lessard says is the class with the most tardies, followed by juniors, then sophomores, and lastly seniors with the least amount of tardies.
Christoff says that almost 60% of students have five tardies or less at the school. “Out of about 1100 there are 179 students that have never had a tardy,” said Christoff, who hopes to get it so that all students will be on time to class.
Principal Sandra Just has a high expectation that Spartans will take hall sweeps seriously and get to class on time. “I would hope that we can get students to go to class, and hopefully over time the need for hall sweeps will lessen,” said Just. “Being on time and being prepared for class shows a lot of respect for your teachers and your peers. If students were in class on time we wouldn’t need hall sweeps or other consequences.”
There are also some students who feel that there should be a change in the TJ community and that students should make it on time to class. “I feel that hall sweeps are making kids hustle because they’d rather go to class than have to go to the pass room and miss class work. I hope it will reduce tardies and making kids want to go to class,” said All School President Nicole Blake.
Christoff and other administrators have been working hard to get students to class on time. “Being on time teaches you a life skill, to respect other peoples’ time and to understand that we don’t live inside a bubble. Our actions have an effect on other people,“ said Christoff.
