At 11:59 a.m., CHS9 students can be found wandering the halls to find a comfortable nook to act as their haven for lunch. As some students enjoy their lunch for the full hour, others bounce around club meetings, attend tutoring sessions, amuse themselves with sports in the gym and laugh as they share conversations.      

There is only one reason for this opportunity that is exclusively found at CHS9: Hour Block Lunch and Family Friday.       

Hour Block Lunch (HBL) is the hour lunch period split into two different parts: A block and B block. Students are allowed to sit in several halls around the school and manage their own time, providing them with greater freedom as they transition into high school. 

“It’s kind of like recess for high schoolers,” CHS9 Principal Dr. Cody Koontz said. “At the fundamental level we want students to get a chance to unwind and breathe.” 

Moreover, Family Friday, a program introduced to CHS9 last year, replaces the preexisting advisory period that was taught based on a habitudes curriculum. Family Friday is a direct extension of the family-like culture at CHS9 where curriculum is divided into four pillars to teach skills necessary for students’ prosperity in the future. 

The first pillar is student professional development, to create a space that cultivates organizational and professional skills to be used in educational and professional spaces in the future. The second pillar is community building through community circles, which allows students to reflect and build stronger connections with the students they share a campus with. The third is service learning, which the faculty is emphasizing this year through various service projects such as connecting ninth grade classrooms to kindergarten classes across Coppell ISD. The final pillar is a true advisory time allowing teachers the time to check in with students and tendswith their social, emotional and academic needs which leads to a positive relationship between teachers and students.

HBL was implemented at CHS9 when it opened in 2018, whereas Family Friday was established in September 2020, with the program spearheaded by assistant principal Robert Goff and social studies teacher Brittany Scruggs. 

“[CHS9] has revamped [its] processes [from] habitudes,” Scruggs said. “What has changed over time is that [CHS9] has switched and adapted programs to [lessons] that are more focused and specific to students and the needs that we have seen rather than a predesigned curriculum.”

Moreover, the programs contribute to the culture of CHS9 in a vital way by emphasizing character and professional skills in each opportunity they provide. 

They embody what we see as goals and what we see as important on our campus of being a community, a global citizen and productive member of society,” Scruggs said. 

HBL and Family Friday are practices unique to CHS9 and are a factor in producing capable students in the high school level and beyond. CHS9 student Aahana Behera views HBL and Family Friday as opportunities for productivity as well as necessary time to recharge.

“From going from a 30 minute period to an hour was very exciting and very useful,” Behera said. “It helps me relax and calm down before the next half of the day. [HBL and Family Friday] help me grow to be more productive and useful with my time.”

This moment to recoup is the secret behind the excitement and memories that students cherish beyond their freshman year. The secret in the formula found in no other CISD school is that students have the liberty and time to explore their passions, resolve their needs and strengthen relationships.

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