On Thursday Dec. 5, SMCHS enacted a new bell schedule for students and faculty.

A call for change arose after only 587 students (1/3 of the school population) attended the All Saints Mass in October. The majority of students came to school late that day wearing their mass day uniform.

Principal Ray Dunne sent out a warning letter to a select amount of students who have missed all past masses.

“I don’t want this to be a penalty type of situation,” Dunne said. “That defeats the whole purpose of why you go to mass. I want people to understand, whether they’re Catholic or not, that this is central to who we are and that faith is important. We don’t have many times in a school community where we come together in a faith setting, and those times a year are very important.”

The administration has taken action by creating a new mass day schedule that pushes the mass back further in the day. This new schedule shortens mass to 90 minutes and allows students to attend two blocks and a 15 minute passing before attending mass.

After mass, students have a regular 30 minute lunch revolving around period four. The day ends with period six at 1:50 p.m.

This is a test run for future mass schedules. Based on feedback, the administration will permanently implement this new bell schedule.