Brunch Should Be Longer

You're in class—it’s 10 minutes before the bell rings for brunch, and you are starving…only one minute left…and finally, the bell rings! Passing by swarms of people, you’re rushing to get to the brunch line, only to see that the line is so long that it’ll probably take up the whole brunch period. Then you try for the Student Store, but the line there is just as long with crowds of students swarming and huddling together, blocking the exits, and making it harder to get by. Next thing you know, it’s already class and you wasted all that time scrambling, waiting,  and trying to get in line for food. 

Although brunch is supposed to be short, and there are passing periods to accommodate for lost time, the actual “break” part of brunch is not long enough. It ends up going by way too fast, especially for those who are occupied with things or want food, but didn’t get a chance to. There is also the factor of what brunch is for and how that affects us.

Yes, I am well aware of the fact that there could be schedule changes in efforts to change brunch time, but what matters most is student performance on academics. That, in turn, heavily depends on their activity outside the classroom. For example, how much time we have at brunch influences how we do, and this is just as important to note. 

As a matter of fact, last school year, there was a new schedule decision for Valencia High only decided by the leadership team, deciding if brunch should either be 25 minutes or stay at 20 minutes. The latter includes the passing period, so really you only get an actual “15 minutes” of brunch. With the 25 minute brunch, you would get 5 more minutes and have that five-minute passing period, although that doesn’t really count. They ended up sticking with the shorter brunch for simplicity reasons. 

“Actually, there’s no legal brunch time required for schools,” said our Principal, Mr. Welch. “We all agree that a break is needed in classes…but there’s no required time for brunch.” 

Mr. Welch said the main reason for this change was for a consistent late start schedule and they still needed the mandatory number of instructional minutes, which is 240 minutes by state law, or more specifically, the California Department of Education (CDE). A longer brunch shouldn’t be a huge problem since it isn’t required by California’s law to even have one, which is pretty outrageous considering we would have to go about four hours without a break from the first period all the way until lunch which is normally at 12:15. 

Case in point, it doesn’t matter too much on how long it is, as long as we get enough instructional time and at least 30 minutes of lunch. Lunch is the only thing that really matters, and that has to fall within the hours of 10:00 am-2:00 pm according to the CDE. This is purely a local policy, and not essential. We should take this extra time as an opportunity to take advantage of it so we can get a restful and enjoyable brunch.  

Brunch being 15 minutes means school would have to end at 2:40. In order to keep the class times where it is and if we want the same lunch time, then logically, it would have to stay 15 minutes. Dismissal would have to be at 2:45 if brunch was 25 minutes, but a 2:40 dismissal time seemed simpler and would complicate things less with the different schedules for that’s the reason the admin chose it. This wouldn’t interfere with class time as well though, as brunch and lunch are separate and would only shift the dismissal times, so it would be a good change and something to make the most out of since the class times won’t be affected and the amount of time brunch takes up does not matter at all really.

The alternative option could work though and be convenient for both students and staff because it gives everyone a little more time to get situated before the next class. Also, you would technically get 25 minutes because of the passing period. Potentially this idea of a “25 minute” brunch including a passing period, is overall more suitable for our needs. That means there would be a slight change in the schedule— 2:45 dismissal time instead, but it wouldn’t be too bad considering we have a slightly longer brunch. On the contrary, it makes sense that it might be confusing for parents to deal with so many dismissal times, as we have three different schedules, but I believe that will only help more than hurt and wouldn’t drastically change everything because it’s only five minutes. 

The factors of lines being long and people having or wanting to do things— such as checking out the events held at brunch, like food trucks or Club Day— but not being able to, should also be taken into consideration. The leadership team has discussed the schedule and time blocks for how long everything should be, and did say, according to Mr. Welch, that they were thinking of using a rally schedule for Club Day so you get 40 minutes instead of shorter. The choice of having a 20-minute brunch was an idea, but wasn’t picked. It would have been helpful to have the additional five minutes for some cases that would require making brunch longer for applied reasons. 

Moreover, the whole point of brunch is to re-energize before you get back to work. If you can’t focus, then you won’t perform as well and will just be thinking about eating instead of your assignments. Everyone feels more rushed at brunch than at lunch, so this change would work because a longer brunch will allow more time for students to relax and do what they need to do to function well and carry out their tasks before the next period. This will also steer away students from scrambling or getting everything they need to get done during brunch at the last minute, and allows us to rest instead and not worry about the short amount of time we have. Although five minutes can go by fast, it can do a lot for us and whether we know it or not and can be effective and beneficial to our performance in academics and mental health. Being rushed causes stress, so having that extra time can alleviate that stress, which is better for our mental health. 

“I could see kids needing to get some energy out. Time with your friends could be a benefit,” said Mr. Welch. 

Fifteen minutes of brunch may be a sufficient amount of time for some, but with all these factors that are important to take into consideration, it is more convenient and fair to have 20 minutes of brunch instead. Luckily, though, a newly added spot for cafeteria food, Campus Cuisine, has been helpful for students to quickly grab a snack, making it more efficient. In short, giving students a little more time for brunch wouldn’t hurt at all and would only help our cause.