Bryan High teacher urges longer lunches, weekly homeroom to curb mid‑day absences

At the Bryan ISD board meeting, Olivia Lesnick, a first‑year math teacher at Bryan High School, told trustees she had surveyed students and found many skip periods in the middle of the day because they need a break for stress management. "Our students are skipping some of their most difficult classes just to have enough mental energy and sanity to get on with the rest of their day," she said.

Lesnick proposed increasing high‑school lunch periods to 45 minutes (with an entire class period devoted to lunch on most days) and adding a weekly homeroom to provide social‑emotional learning and another adult point of contact for students. She said those changes would give students time to socialize in appropriate spaces and would relieve pressure on counselors and assistant principals who are "overwhelmed with student problems."

The board did not debate or take action on the proposal during the meeting. The president said the board could not discuss specific student or personnel matters in open session but would "take that to heart." No follow‑up vote or direction was announced at the meeting; Lesnick asked trustees to consider the schedule change for both Bryan and Rudder High schools.

Trustees later continued agenda business; staff and trustees acknowledged the district’s counseling workload and the need to support student mental health when discussing CTE and scheduling issues elsewhere in the meeting. The board indicated staff would consider the comment as part of broader scheduling and student‑support planning.