A few weeks ago an email was sent out that said the school will be implementing a new schedule beginning this upcoming September. The schedule will look similar to how the schedule was last year with hybrid learning. We will continue to go by the 6-day cycle, but we won’t have the same classes every day. For example, on Day 1, you could have English 1st period, for Day 2 you would have English 8th period, and on Day 3 you wouldn’t have English at all. Some other major changes include each period being extended to 55 minutes, which means students will only have 6 periods per day, not including lunch. There will also be only two lunch periods each day. 7th - 9th graders will have lunch together, and 10th - 12th graders will have lunch together. This brings up the problem of overcrowded lunch rooms and long cafeteria lines. The final major change that will be made is that school will begin at 8:25 AM and end at 3:07 PM. Surprisingly, this is not the first time Edgemont has had a schedule change. The most recent one took place at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year where Edgemont went from an 8-period day to a 9-period day. As usual, big changes like these always arouse controversy, so I interviewed students, parents, and teachers to get their views on this new schedule.
What are your overall thoughts on the new schedule that will start taking place next year?
“It’s going to be a lot less homework, but I’m kind of used to the 9-period schedule again (after hybrid learning), so I don’t really see the need for change.”
Avi Gassman, 10th Grade
“I think there are some good parts and some bad parts, but I mean to me personally overall it’ll be a better change because we’re not having every class every day which is beneficial. Like if I’m not going to have math class every day so I’m not going to have to do the math homework every night which is a plus. The same goes for my other classes.”
Kenny Saito, 10th Grade
“I believe going to 6 period days has many benefits. Overall, it gives both the teachers and students huge advantages to delve deeper into their subjects which are only positives in my view. The only negative aspect that I see is only having two lunch periods, which means even more students which will create longer lines. Hopefully there are plans that are being discussed to ease the wait times and crowds.”
- Anju Ahmed, Parent of 10th Grader
Do you think this is going to have a major impact on you, mentally or in any other ways you can think of?
“Well next year is Junior year so I know much more classes are going to be harder, so it’s good that I have extra time to finish my work and get on top of assignments, but yeah it’s still going to be a major adjustment and it’s definitely going to take some time to get used to, like at least a month.”
Jonah Vadakkan, 10th Grade
“I’m hoping it will impact us all positively. You know it’s a change and change is always a little hard for people to get used to, but it will be nice to have a longer period of time with students, and in 55 minutes we can definitely do more in terms of diverse activities during the period than we’ve been able to do in 40 [minutes]."
Ms. Schutt, English Teacher
“I think this change is more positive because there are less classes every day which should mean less homework, which means less stress for the kids. The only negative aspect of this change that comes to mind is that there are only two lunch periods now, and three whole grades at each lunch period is a lot of kids which is something to think about.”
Carolyn Moattar, Parent of 9th Grader
What are your thoughts on only having six periods a day and not having every class every day with the idea of each class being 55 minutes?
“I don’t think we’ll be terribly affected by this, it’s just lessening the day by 3 periods and making each period longer. The only thing I don’t like is that they’re making each period longer but lunch is staying at 40 minutes which is kind of dumb, but there’s not going to be a lot of mental impact because the amount of home work increase for each subject will be made up for the fact that you’re getting less subjects each day, but I still think that 9 period days are better thand 6.”
Alexandro Guerrero-Martinez, 8th Grade
“I think it’s a good thing to see different classes at different times of the day and not always have the same group every morning or every afternoon, but just to have classes at different times of the day and the energy will change a bit according to it and I think the fluctuation or the variety is a good thing.”
Mr. Thoren, Spanish Teacher
“I’m okay with only having 6 periods a day, I mean I’m fine with the regular 9 period schedule, but I really don’t appreciate the 55 minute schedule, especially with science classes which are going to be 110 minutes on days where we have doubles which isn’t something I’m looking forward to.”
Raheem Ahmed, 8th Grade
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Overall the responses from students, parents and teachers were equally split between supporting the new schedule and opposing it. Campus also sent out a poll to the students in the school to get a better idea of how this schedule is being viewed by the school as a whole. On whether or not students support the new schedule, 28.7% said they don’t like it, and 5.2% said that they love the new schedule. However, when asked if students supported not having every class every day, 41.4% supported it while 35.3% didn’t. Another question where responses were very one sided was if students supported 55-minute periods, and a majority of 63.8% did not support that. Overall, the majority of students at EHS do not currently support the new schedule and would rather it stay as it is now.