Since the reopening of in-person schooling at Tallmadge High School has begun, THS administrators have made the decision to give juniors and seniors the option to leave the school for Open Lunch. It is not required, but it is recommended.

“The idea about offering open lunch to the upperclassmen was two-fold…We wanted to eliminate as much movement [as possible] in the hallways and cafeteria during academy, so to have the majority of 11th and 12th [grade] leave during that time was key,” vice principal Jen Stewart said.

Open lunch allows students to leave the school during A, B and C Academy to grab lunch or whatever they would like to do during the 90 minutes. THS administrators have made this decision to reduce the number of students in the building as much as possible at any given time.

“The decrease of hallway traffic and academy movement has helped to secure safety protocols we’ve put in place and given us the opportunity to spread groups of students out throughout the building,” Stewart said.

With adding open lunch, THS is keeping the school with as few students as possible every day, and students appear not to be having an issue with it.

“I think having open lunch is amazing. I find it more enjoyable than having an academy because I get a break from school and being able to see my friends that I usually don’t see because of academy. It makes me be able to have some quiet time to focus on my work,” junior Madison Carlton said.

Normally it would only be seniors in their last month of high school that would have open lunch, but it was decided that the older students might enjoy having it year-round.

Stewart said, “With all of the changes that have been made during this time, we really wanted to offer something to the upperclassmen that they could look forward to and that was just for them.”