There’s no doubt that CHS can be a high stress environment. To provide an outlet for students and to encourage them to read more often, Instructional Council introduced Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) last year. Since then the entire school has participated in DEAR every Thursday for a half hour at the end of second period and into the beginning of lunch.

As of Nov. 17, DEAR Thursdays changed to DEAR Mondays, said Instructional Council. The main reason for this is to make it easier for seniors in mentorship class to participate. Before, to get to their workplaces on time, some seniors had to leave school early and miss DEAR time. Because seniors only leave school for mentorship Tuesdays through Fridays, changing DEAR to Mondays means they won’t have to miss the chance for some downtime with a book.

Freshman Cole Raymond of Middletown said, “DV Club and Photo Club are both on Mondays so that is rough because we have less time for lunch and two clubs which is difficult to handle.”

On DEAR days, periods are shortened by around 15 minutes, giving students 30 minutes to read between 10:10 a.m. and 10:40 a.m.

Freshman Kate Ridoux of Wall said DEAR days as something to look forward to at the end of the school week.

“I prefer it on Thursdays,” added Ridoux, “because Mondays are the first day I get to set my week off on the right start.”

Ridoux said that easing into a new school week with an altered schedule is not the way to go. She said students should transition right into a new week with a normal schedule and wind down with DEAR at the end of the week.

Sophomore Becca Cleffi of Manasquan agreed with the switch because “…a lot of people don’t like going to school on Mondays … It’s nice to give people some time to relax.”

Senior Caroline Yasenchak of Manasquan, who already participated in senior mentorship during marking period one, disagreed.

“Towards the end of the week, we have more assessments such as quizzes and tests, and on Mondays we usually don’t have stuff like that to worry about,” Yasenchak said.