The start of the 2025/2026 school year marks the implementation of one lunch.
That’s been covered before again and again but now students can start to see the real effects of this change. Do students and staff believe the decision for this major schedule update changed the school for the better? Or do the inhabitants of PRHS believe the school bit off more than it could chew?
The decision to only have one lunch instead of two was heavily thought over by admin at PRHS. For the school years of 2021 to 2025 PRHS had a two- lunch schedule, cutting the amount of students that were present per lunch in half. This made it so that students would either have lunches after their third period or fourth period. As the two lunch system was abandoned for the return of one lunch, students and staff reflect on having one lunch. While two lunches had its benefits, flaws were noticeable to staff. Campus Assistant Carson Weide recalled, “It was good, but it was also difficult at times. Because kids can either kind of sneak out of class and have those two lunches.”.
Concerns over crowded lunch lines arose during the discussions of a possible one lunch in previous years. Now that one lunch has been implemented, how has this concern been addressed? To try and counter the increased foot traffic during lunch, PRHS opened up a new venue to serve students lunch. Lead Taryn Shepard commented on the addition of another venue,“ I think that helps with our lines not be as busy as they would have been.”
An aspect that students appreciate about having one lunch is the opportunity to eat with their friends. A common criticism of the two-lunch schedule was the fact that students would be separated from their friends during lunch. With the arrival of one lunch students can now share a lunch with all of their peers. Rudy Hamm (11) commented, “I do think it separated people off and not splitting, but they made friend groups within friend groups.”. This issue was also covered in a previous story by Crimson Newsmagazine. But is eating with friends worth the cost of longer lines and crowded areas? This question still is present today as lines to recieve food stretch.
The discussion of one lunch had its advocates and opposers and regardless of previous arguments it is here for the 2025-2026 year at PRHS. A question that lingers now is ‘Will this decision go unchanged?’ and its answer is still isn’t definitive.
