Flex is a class period that is given to help students catch up on their missing assignments or if they need a little more help than usual. It started last year at CCHS and other district campuses and was altered this year in both the time (between 2nd and 3rd period instead of at lunch) and in choice (student choice was changed to students being assigned to a class). Some take advantage of it and others use it the right way. That extra hour for students to catch up on their work can be beneficial. It helped many students catch up on some missing assignments and keep their grades up. Some students need extra help than others so that helps them ask teachers questions without taking too much time from the other students during regular class hours. But others didn’t utilize the extra time and the experiment is ending after this year, according to the district. This brought mixed reactions from Aztec students. 

“On paper, I think the flex system is a good idea but in actuality there are many flaws to the system,” said senior Aron Casales Silva. “Most people are sent to a random class they have a good grade in rather than be sent to the class they need to be in. Flex classes give good time to finish up small class work but they aren’t good for finishing up whole missing assignments.”

Nature Lathon, a senior at Copper Canyon High School, also had some reservations about the changes in scheduling. Last year students who didn’t need the extra help could choose to attend a club meeting, sports meeting or use the extra time at lunch or in the library. There would also be scholarship workshops and other events to choose from during the longer lunch. This year that was not an option and many like Lathon saw flex as unnecessary.

“Flex is efficient for the people who are failing but if you are passing I feel like it’s just unnecessary,” he said. “Because everything you could just do it all at home. If students are actually committed then they will actually do it all at home and they wouldn’t have to take extra time to do it. So I feel like flex is just an extra time. I’m highly against flex. It helps but not for everybody it’s unnecessary. You can’t force somebody to pass. If they don’t wanna do it, they just don’t wanna do it.” 

“I think ending flex is probably a bad idea because most students need it to catch up on their grades,” said Pedro Vergara, a senior at Copper Canyon High School. “They get a little distracted and they need that special time to get some extra work in.” 

Jonathan Cid, a sophomore at Copper Canyon High School, agreed.

“I think the ending of flex is not good,” he said. “We need flex to catch up on missing work. I think they shouldn’t end flex. I need flex because I don’t do my work a lot and flex is really good to catch up on work that I don’t do in class.”