With all students back in-person, CRLS has resumed the block lunch schedule. First introduced in 2016, the schedule was originally meant to alleviate the problems created by lunch groups of well over 900 people, such as overcrowded cafeterias and long lines for food. This was accomplished by creating three separate lunch periods. Lunch A would be the first, followed by Lunch B, and Lunch C would be the last. For the most part, block lunches have accomplished that goal. However, there is one controversial part of this schedule: this year, students who have their third period classes on the 4th and 5th floors have Lunch B. This ensures that every student with Lunch B walks a minimum of eight flights of stairs during their allotted thirty minutes of lunch to go down and then back up to their classes. While this may not seem like a big deal in the grand scheme of things, CRLS students cannot see the reason for such hassle.

Lunch B student Sam Kim ’23, described the transition between class and going down for lunch as a disruption. He explained to the Register Forum how the process of going to the bottom floor and climbing “five flights of stairs 30 minutes later is kind of a pain.” He believes that instead, the school should “give [the fourth and fifth floor] lunch A or C,” so that students will walk less. Gita Drummond ’24 further elaborated to the Register Forum on the difficulties that Lunch B poses. “It makes no sense that the top two floors have Lunch B. It’s unfair that [students] have to schlep all the way downstairs and all the way back up just to have lunch.”

Drummond further commented on the unpopularity of Lunch B among the student body, saying that Lunch B was a “low-point” of the day for her and the people she eats with because of the added stress of time and effort it takes to go back to class: “It’s not uncommon to see a lot of students panting heavily when they get up to the fourth or fifth floor.”

Mr. Jonathan Carbutt, an English teacher at CRLS, told the Register Forum that he can “understand how it may be difficult for students to go down and come back up during the two shorter periods.” Consequently, he thinks that the fifth floor in particular should be exempt from having Lunch B. However, Carbutt also believes that Lunch B can be beneficial, as having Lunch B can make class more digestible for some, with the long eighty-five minute period being “separated into two shorter sessions.”