Watertown High School’s 2022-2023 lunch schedule consists of 30 minute lunches separated by grade level and gives students mixed emotions compared to last year’s intermingled lunches. In previous years, the lunches have always consisted of different grades mixed which allowed students’ lunch periods to change daily. This year’s schedule change also forced WIN period to be the longest block of the day, making it two hours exactly and allowing lunch to be extended to thirty minutes long. Freshmen eat first, sophomores eat second, juniors eat third and seniors eat last. 

Freshman reported enjoying having lunch with their grade and do not want the schedule to change back to what it was originally. Aubrey and Mia, two freshmen at Watertown High School, say they believe it would be too confusing for them if they had lunch at different periods every day. They do not want the schedule to change because they enjoy having their first lunch and the routine is good for them. Since freshmen are new to high school, and many do not know students in other grades, they also like the schedule because they can be with their friends. Another freshman at Watertown, Gavin L, said that he likes having a guaranteed lunch with friends and would not mind if the lunches were intermingled as long as he had friends in the lunch.  

Sophomores’ opinions differ majorly from freshmen. Sophomores eat the second lunch of the day, and since they were here last year, they were able to get a feel for the previous lunch schedule and compare it to this year. Sophomores feel the lunch schedules should change day by day because it would help student-teacher meetings during WIN. Sophomore, Christian T, said if the lunch schedule was like it was last year, it may increase the strength of the community within the school. He also mentioned that he would like the lunches to be at different times because it is not fair to the upperclassmen who have to “wait to eat when the younger kids get it sooner.” Many sophomores said if the lunch schedule was different, it would help the lower-classmen and upper-classmen to meet and form stronger relationships which are highly important for a positive school community. 

It is ordinary to see such a mix of emotions towards a disputed subject like lunch schedule changes and the juniors take the gold in contradicting opinions towards the Watertown High School lunch schedule. It is mostly split between juniors who want to keep the current lunch schedule and those who don’t. Alisa S, a Junior, went above and beyond to voice her opinion on the lunches. She made a petition herself and shared it online to change the lunch schedule back to the way it was last year. She believes last year’s lunch was overall better for the school climate, as it introduced people to one another, and was a great opportunity for students to make new friends. Alisa made the point that students should be able to eat at different times of the day and that it is not right to make seniors wait for the last lunch each time. Many juniors sided with Alisa. In fact, about 120  people signed her petition. Other juniors spoke about how they enjoy the lunch schedule now. Josh A reported that he likes having lunch with the same grade and Rion D also agreed with Josh heavily. These two juniors like consistency, so they would rather this schedule than last year’s. Many juniors said they do not feel the need to make new friends and don’t see the necessity of meeting the freshman. They would rather be satisfied with the reliability factor of having to sit with friends every day than the anxiety from struggling to find people to sit with. 

Seniors, who have to wait until the last lunch to eat, do not like this year’s lunch schedule change. They believe the schedule should revert back to last year’s so they do not have to keep waiting an hour and a half to eat. Evan W. emphasized how he liked having lunches with different grades. He had friends in other classes and it was nice for him to see them during lunch, but with this year’s schedule, he does not see them very much. The ability to eat lunch at a different time of day, every day, is something the seniors’ miss. Sometimes, the school runs out of hot lunch, and by the time seniors get there, there isn’t enough for everyone, so they get the short end of the stick despite their seniority. 

Watertown High School changed their lunch schedule this year so that separate grades from each other and all four at the same time every day and students have expressed their very differing opinions on the schedule change through the internet, to administrators and other students. This controversial lunch subject has everyone wondering, will WHS do something about this schedule setback, or will they keep this change for the remaining days left in the school year?