Students will now only be able to schedule with teachers who teach subjects that they are enrolled in, according to new FIT guidelines that McCallum adopted in the last week of October. These guidelines also include restrictions on clubs, which will now only meet on Fridays.
Our original plan for FIT was to have clubs and fun activities at the end of the week; however, it seems like FIT has morphed into clubs 3 days a week, which does not leave much time for academic support.
— principal Andy Baxa
According to Principal Andy Baxa, these adjustments to FIT policy have been created to restore the “original intention of FIT.”
“Over the years we have gotten away from the original intention of FIT, which was focused on providing students with an opportunity to get extra help,” Baxa wrote in an email to MacJournalism. “Our original plan for FIT was to have clubs and fun activities at the end of the week; however, it seems like FIT has morphed into clubs three days a week, which does not leave much time for academic support.”
Another factor that contributed to the decision was concerned with attendance issues.
“Some teachers were spending 5-10 minutes on taking roll, which only left a limited amount of time to help students,” Baxa said. “By restricting FIT to teachers on your schedule, teachers will get more time to help students.”
Baxa made sure to note that one change to the new policy will be continuing to allow seniors access to college and career counselor Camille Nix during FIT hours.
Teachers are now adjusting their FIT schedules to accommodate these rules, including SPECTRUM club sponsor and math teacher Kelly Wroblewski.
“Part of it is challenging in the sense that I understand the need for the change and how it helps our administration be better with student safety during that time,” Wroblewski said. “But what I found frustrating about this was the lack of warning.”
Having FIT, in my mind, has always been a time to relax, decompress, be social with people and build connections within the school.
— senior club member William Perkins
Wroblewski had planned to host a club party at the Tuesday FIT following the announcement of the new guidelines. Though she maintained her schedule despite the policy, she remains optimistic that Fridays may work better going forward.
“I think Fridays will ultimately turn out better for us because it turns out that we will have fewer FIT Tuesdays than we will FIT Fridays,” Wroblewski said. “FIT Friday usually happens. We are excited because we will ultimately have more meetings.”
Some club-goers have a different perspective, however. Senior club leader William Perkins believes this will restrict students in their educational prowess.
“I feel like the FIT regulations are extremely restrictive on the people that are trying to express themselves,” Perkins said. “There’s a lot of fun activities around McCallum and sometimes people just want to go to classes that are centered more around their interests. By restricting what classes people are able to go to, not only are they losing the ability to learn more about things they may find interesting but also restricts them from having this time to be social, which I think is a big detriment.”
Perkins, founder of the Nap-Time club and member of the UIL Academics club, also mentioned how this impacts students hoping to participate in multiple clubs.
FIT Friday usually happens. We are excited because we will ultimately have more meetings.
— club sponsor Kelly Wroblewski
“[The restrictions on clubs] is very upsetting to me because I am already in multiple clubs that happen during FIT,” Perkins said. “Now that I have to choose between them is really unfair because I have to pick what I would like to do over another. I normally always go around during FIT to experience other clubs. I’ve gone to Yoga, Just Dance and a ton of other clubs, and now I don’t really get to experience all of the fun things that McCallum offers because I now have to pick one club a week.”
Though Perkins acknowledges the good intentions of the new policy, he still believes that the bad outweighs the good.
“While I recognize the importance of getting kids to be productive in their own merit, I think that solely focusing on that undermines the draining aspect that school brings on people,” Perkins said. “School is a long time and a lot of people spend a lot of time working on their homework. Having FIT, in my mind, has always been a time to relax, decompress, be social with people and build connections within the school. The fact that that time is sort of being taken away undermines, maybe not what FIT was intended to do, but what students have been using FIT for to better themselves.”
![With the AISD rank and GPA discrepancies, some students had significant changes to their stats. College and career counselor Camille Nix worked with students to appeal their college decisions if they got rejected from schools depending on their previous stats before getting updated. Students worked with Nix to update schools on their new stats in order to fully get their appropriate decisions. “Those who already were accepted [won’t be affected], but it could factor in if a student appeals their initial decision,” Principal Andy Baxa said.](https://macshieldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/53674616658_18d367e00f_o-1200x676.jpg)
Elli Grace Hodges • Feb 29, 2024 at 12:02 pm
This article is a great way of describing the truth of the changes to fit. I believe it has a negative and positive effect on students. Being in fit and communicating with my peers about realworld subjects is beneficial, but I do believe some students in FIT take the time to their advantage. FIT had a positive effect in helping with teachers, and scheduling.
Beatrix Lozach • Jan 12, 2024 at 2:50 pm
Because of the alterations with FIT, I had to leave SPECTRUM and so I can personally attest to how these changes have harmed student life. As a consequence of my leaving SPECTRUM, I lost the benefits of a queer community where we could have uninterrupted conversations about issues affecting queer people. Especially because of the anti-trans bills Republican legislators passed in 2022 and 2023, I feel that loss acutely. I wish that the negative impacts on students had been more emphasized throughout the article, rather than relegated to a single perspective.
Cole Truong • Jan 12, 2024 at 2:30 pm
I don’t like the new fit restrictions. some people don’t need tutoring or don’t have any missing work, so they should be able to go to whatever classroom they want to socialize if they don’t need what the original intention was.