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Bryan High teacher urges longer lunches and homeroom slot to address student stress
Summary
A Bryan High math teacher, Olivia Lesnick, told trustees she collected student survey data showing midday skipping and stress; she proposed expanding lunch to 45 minutes, adding a weekly homeroom for SEL and digital-citizenship instruction, and opening courtyards to encourage social time.
During the public-comment portion of the Bryan ISD meeting, Bryan High math teacher Olivia Lesnick urged trustees to consider schedule changes at the high school level to address student stress and class-skipping.
Lesnick said she is a first-year teacher (and a former substitute across the district) who collected data and student survey responses that indicated students often skip a single class period midday to manage stress and to socialize. She proposed two schedule changes:
- Increase high-school lunch periods to 45 minutes (an entire class period as lunch) and open campus courtyards at Bryan High to provide a supervised social space; and
- Add a regular homeroom period (she suggested Wednesdays) to provide 30 minutes weekly for social-emotional learning (SEL), digital citizenship and to create one more adult point of contact for students.
"The number one answer I got was stress management," Lesnick said, describing why students skip classes. She asked the board to consider a unilateral schedule change for both Bryan High and Rudder High so students would not transfer schools for a longer lunch.
Board response
Trustees declined to discuss the matter on the spot (per meeting rules) but said they would "take that to heart." Lesnick's comments were recorded as a public input item and the board moved on to information items.
