GROTON, Conn. – In another attempt to reduce wanderers and rulebreakers during CTL, teachers are required to have students check-in via QR code when visiting a classroom that is not their own.

This new policy was implemented during the first week of January. The QR code sends students to a google form that asks the following questions: “My Last Name,” “Last Name of Teacher I am Visiting,” “CTL Room Number,” and “Reason I am Here.” This is one of many attempts to track where students are during CTL, since a handful take advantage of the time in order to roam the halls or barge into other classrooms, among other things. This, however, does affect students who either use the time efficiently, or need to travel to other CTLs often due to extracurriculars or academic reasons, which may come as an inconvenience to them. 

“So far from my perspective, yes, there’s a lot of roamers during CTL and if we have them check in quickly it avoids a big safety issue of knowing where students are at all times,” said Dr. RA, one of the two ASL teachers at Fitch. “I think it’s more practical [than the three-pass system].”

This check-in system is just one example of a slew of changes made to the CTL block during the 2023-2024 school year. For one, CTL was extended from last year, as the daily schedule shifted from having four lunch waves to three. 

Another relatively recent change was the three-pass system which has been in place since the beginning of the school year. A blue pass was required for guidance appointments, a green pass for CTL-specific meetings, and a purple pass for other appointments, such as the nurse’s office. The blue pass has since been removed. 

“Freshman year CTL was like two hours and we had lunch waves; I appreciate that it’s shorter now,” said senior Cat McKenna. “I wish the passes were more consistent. I understand why they do it but sometimes I want to visit my friends and it can be hard to get a pass.”

One last substantial change is the “Naviance”/”Social-Emotional” learning day, which is not very favorable among students, was moved from Fridays to Mondays. On top of this, Tuesdays are now “Combined CTLs” In which each CTL pairs up with one from another grade, and half of the students have to move to a different classroom. This type of CTL was in place two years ago, removed last year, and brought back this year. For both of these days, students are not allowed to travel to other CTL rooms.

This all coincides with a number of bathroom policy changes at Fitch that have been ongoing since November.