Wellness is a chance for sophomores, juniors, and seniors to escape the pressure of school with anything from meditation to intramurals. Starting this year, BSM is changing wellness, with the hope that it can teach students more time management skills. This new change will force students to reorganize their schedule and plan ahead.

Wellness has been an official class for eight years at BSM, and in the past, students have had to go once a week on their scheduled day to a wellness class for three out of the four quarters. This year, students can pick and choose when they go. “In [a] semester, students are required to go to 11 out of the 18 wellness classes. We’re trying to make it more real world,” gym teacher and wellness instructor, Casey Hanson said.

In the past, when students skipped a wellness day, they would get a detention and, if they had to miss a wellness because they were sick or on a field trip, they would get a zero for that day’s wellness. This year, the process will be different. “If [a student] misses more than seven [wellness classes, they] are not passing wellness, so [they’re] going to retake a wellness to get a wellness credit,” Hanson said.

This year, students will also have more flexibility with what they do each wellness class. “We know [students] have to [go to] 11 of 18. We know that number’s going to fluctuate every time. It’s going to be a different group, so as the group comes down, we’re just kind of throwing out any option we can go do,” Hanson said.

Right now, no new wellness options are going to be added, but one old class will not available. “We had biking available last year, and with this new format, I don’t know that biking will work because we have a limited number of bikes,” Hanson said.

These changes will put a lot of responsibility on the students and will hopefully be more helpful for them in the long run. “I think it’s a good opportunity for [students] to figure out time management skills, so they can manage better. We’re giving the students an opportunity to demonstrate their responsibility skills and taking initiative to basically plan out their semester,” gym teacher and wellness instructor, Logan Radle said.

Another hope for this class is an easier time managing the stress that comes with finals week. “We’re hoping that everyone takes advantage early. We’ve used the wellness during finals to give [students] study time [in the past] but we’re hoping that students choose wisely and use their time wisely and aren’t stressed out that finals week and can have their wellness taken care of at that time,” Hanson said.