Morton High plans 4‑lunch homeroom to replace ‘Potter Hour,’ aims to boost academic support

Morton High School Principal Kirk Edwards proposed Tuesday that the school replace its current 30‑minute daily Potter Hour with a reorganized homeroom system that would run during four staggered lunches and include dedicated academic help for students.

Edwards said the change is intended to keep instruction from being interrupted by split‑class lunches and to give students more consistent access to tutoring, counseling and school communications. “We have 150 minutes a week being used for Potter Hour,” Edwards said. “What is our return on this? … We want rigor, but we must mirror that with support.”

Administrators and staff told the board the original Potter Hour program, introduced as social‑emotional learning, had become repetitive and unevenly implemented over four years. Edwards said staff meetings and surveys showed students and teachers had repeatedly reported…