Boosting Student Engagement Through a Schoolwide Lunch Hour

Founded in 2013, Spring Mills High School in Martinsburg, West Virginia, is the newest school in the state. The administrators and teachers faced a familiar challenge: How do you inspire students to come to school regularly, especially when there’s no established school culture or traditions? When chronic absenteeism reached 33 percent in 2023, school leadership knew they needed to act—and the biggest change that Spring Mills made was to alter the bell schedule to allow for a single, schoolwide lunch hour, called Cardinals Connect.

Now, the more than 1,500 students who attend Spring Mills have the opportunity to choose from a variety of activities to participate in at midday in addition to eating lunch. Mark Salfia, Spring Mills’s principal, admits it sounds like “organized chaos”—but the benefits outweigh the challenges.

The lunch hour is divided into an A period and a B period. Students pick one period for eating lunch. The other period can be spent in a variety of ways. The math and English departments each have a day when they offer tutoring. Students can go to the gym or courtyard to play pickup basketball, football, volleyball, or other sports. Some choose to go to the library for a chance to read or study. Others enjoy the chance to catch up with friends with whom they don’t share classes.

Cardinals Connect is a chance to reset in the middle of the day. It’s also a chance to pursue interests and connect with others. Many students who attend Spring Mills work or care for their siblings after school, and before Cardinals Connect, they didn’t have the opportunity to participate in clubs. Now, those students can join any of 40 clubs, allowing them to do community service, act in a play, and learn about potential careers. Since the program was introduced in 2023, participation in clubs and academic support programs has increased by 200 percent.

Sara Slatcoff is a forensics teacher who also coordinates the logistics of the schoolwide lunch period. The program requires buy-in and ongoing participation from teachers and staff. Every teacher has a half hour to eat lunch. For the other half hour, they’re on duty, running a club or helping to manage a space to ensure that students stay safe. Each department has a day when they’re off duty to allow time for meetings. And Cardinals Connect doesn’t take place on Mondays, to allow for time to give students advisory and counseling resources.

The result? “I see a lot of happy kids,” says Salfia. And even more important, absentee rates have dropped dramatically. Chronic absenteeism has decreased by 6 percent. Daily attendance regularly reaches 92 percent. With more frequent attendance, students also perform better academically: Spring Mills has seen improvements in PSAT, SAT, and IXL scores.

The biggest supporters of the Cardinals Connect schoolwide lunch hour are, no doubt, the students themselves. They enjoy the freedom, the chance to blow off some steam, the extra studying time, and the opportunity to see friends. They’re gaining valuable skills in time management and responsibility while in a safe, supportive environment. Spring Mills High School is building a culture of active, engaged students—and they’re showing up to take part.

To find more strategies to alleviate chronic absenteeism, read John Bird’s article for Edutopia, “How Tiered Supports Reduced Chronic Absenteeism at a New Jersey High School,” or Zi Jia Ng’s piece, “Addressing Chronic Absenteeism With Emotion Regulation Strategies.”