By Charlie Frank, Nick Gammal, and Joe Lanen
Morning wake-ups arrive all too early for students of Hopkinton High School. Students rush out of their homes every morning in order to meet the early school day start-time. Three consecutive bell rings in the morning at 7:20 a.m. notify students to start walking to their first period class. To be on time, students need to be in their classrooms by 7:25 a.m., which sounds pretty easy. However, getting to school on time varies in difficulty depending on the student’s means of transportation.
The traffic starts to back up early in the morning for students and staff trying to arrive on time. “The drop off line is always so long, so it takes me a while to get to my parking lot in the morning,†says senior Nikolai Saporoschetz. By 7 a.m., the dreaded drop-off line extends to the end of the high school entrance and into the streets. The drop-off line is especially long in the winter months as parents try to cut down their children’s walking time in cold December temperatures. Students who take the bus are lucky to be dropped off very close to the front entrance, having to endure only a short walk from their drop-off at bus loop.
Other commuters aren’t as fortunate to have the bus drivers or parents drop them off nearly at the front doors. With help from the crossing guard, many students walk and bike to get to school in the morning. “I used to have to walk to school in the morning, even during winter when I was a freshman,” said senior Jeff Foster, “and I remember walking into all of my classes barely on time, absolutely freezing.â€
There are also many different parking lots that students are assigned to. Parking lots such as “senior,†“water towers,†“tennis,†“H,†“J,†and “K†are located at different distances from the school building’s entrances. Since some lots are closer than others, timing is everything. Taking traffic, parking, and walking into account, eventually most students become professionals at avoiding getting a tardy, no matter their means of transportation.
