Students will be able to meet with extracurricular groups during select ANPs starting this week.

Jan. 27 will mark the first day of ANP that includes Club and Activity Time (CAT) Meetings. At 10, an announcement over the intercom will release students to their meetings, without the need to get a written pass ahead of time. When the regular ANP travel bell rings at 10:16, students at CAT Meetings will be given CAT passes from their activity sponsors and sent back to their ANP rooms.

“The ANP Committee hopes these will be helpful for clubs and athletics for those quick meetings where coaches and sponsors just want to check in,” Mrs. Christy Mathews said.

Mathews was a key part of the initiative to get CAT integrated into ANP. She hopes that CAT Meetings will be helpful for clubs and teams who need to pass out paperwork or distribute information but do not necessarily want to hold students just a few minutes after school and cause them to miss the buses.

CAT Meetings should not cut into academics too much because they are only during the last 16 minutes of travel time. In addition, only certain dates will include CAT at all.

“These meetings are for any club, activity, or athletic team that is adult-sponsored and will be held approximately twice per month,” Mathews said, listing this semester’s CAT dates as Jan. 27, Feb. 10 and 17, March 2 and 16, April 13 and 27, and May 11.

Mathews noted that because the change is being implemented in the middle of the year, the ANP Committee will be able to see what aspects of the program work, gather data on how groups are using the time, and make any necessary changes on an ongoing basis. By the time the program is introduced to new students next year, it should be mature enough to fit in with the other aspects of ANP.