With the 2019-2020 school year back in swing, one prominent change that was implemented involved the increased frequency of Hiller Days. Hiller Days have been present in the past, but this year they are now every Friday of the calendar year.

Last year, Hiller Days occurred on alternating weeks each month, in order to allow advisory meetings.

Senior Haley Auslander thinks that Hiller Days are beneficial to students. “It’s very important for students to get adequate sleep, and Hiller Days allow for that. It helps keep me more alert for classes in the morning.”

Proper sleep is a priority as students’ workloads increase.

“I like Hiller Days, 100%. Sleep is super important. It’s a necessity when students are staying up late studying and finishing work. Hiller Days give us that extra time.” Senior Maddey Strickland said.

The staff and administration are using the extra time to plan and organize. Principal Evan Bishop noted that Hiller Days are great for the flexibility of the teachers.

“It’s great to have an allotted time to plan and for teachers to work together. Before incorporating the Hiller Days, it wasn’t as easy to set aside that time for planning. It was an effort for us [the administration] to explore a later start time without going to a later start time across the board.” Mr. Bishop said. “It’s critical that our teachers have the opportunity to work with one another.”

Mr. Bishop emphasized the need to appeal to the students’ and staff’s well-being. So, student and teacher perspectives are taken into consideration for Hiller Days.

Mr. Bishop stated, “I will be doing some surveying after about a month or two to see how people are liking having Hiller Days every Friday… We made Hiller Days with the intention of creating a schedule that meets everyone’s needs.”

Though HHS has only had two Hiller Days thus far, it seems to be working well amongst both students and teachers.

For senior An-Chi Huang, Hiller Days are something to look forward to. “They make me look forward to Fridays more than I already do.”

The success of Hiller Days is pivotal and Mr. Bishop hopes to keep Hiller Days built into the schedule. He mentions that it takes a lot of work meeting with different groups to make the scheduling work.

Surveys are to be sent out later in the year to measure the success of Hiller Days, but Mr. Bishop has his own thoughts.

“I do like Hiller Days, very much.”