MTHS staff voted to add an extra PASS day every week in order to allow students to have access to additional help outside the classroom.

Starting next week, there will be PASS every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Promoting Academic Student Success, commonly known as PASS, is a scheduled time during the school day when students can work on their homework and get individualized help from their teachers.

Principal Greg Schwab has been advocating for the addition of more time for students who need extra help, specifically with the adoption of more PASS days.

“Every student should have some access to extra help. By having time set aside for that during the school day, every kid can get the help they need,” Schwab said.

In the online survey that MTHS administration set up last year, 78 percent of the exceeding 430 students who took it said that they wanted more PASS days, according to Schwab.

“It felt like we had a lot of evidence that pointed to more PASS time,” he said.

After discussions over the summer, the staff held the vote on whether or not to add on another PASS day last week. Schwab said when the votes were tallied on Monday, around 75 percent of the teachers who voted were in favor of more PASS days.

He said that 85 percent of the teachers who could have voted did vote, which he reported was a “pretty high rate of return.” Only 60 percent of the staff needed to participate in the vote in order for it to be a valid decision.

The staff decided to make the additional PASS day on Friday so that it can be an extra day for academics and also allows there to be pre-scheduled times for other school business, such as assemblies, which are usually on Fridays.