Despite an outcry from the student population, the faculty is moving forward with significant changes to the seven day rotation.
The new schedule will be a five day rotation with tutorial every Tuesday morning. Mondays will have seven classes and end at 3:30, while Tuesdays and Fridays will end at 2:50.
In an attempt to allow students to voice their opinions, the faculty organized a focus group of about ten students. There was no official vote on whether or not to keep the seven day rotation, sophomore Courtney Gao said, but they did discuss the pros and cons of a variety of options. She said the schedule that will be used next year was the most widely supported.
“The new schedule works pretty well for me because having all the classes on Monday complements my learning style a little better than the seven day rotation,” she said. “Also, I think the new schedule puts tutorial and staff development in more effective times.”
While many people are outraged by the new schedule, it is wrong to believe that the current schedule was not equally controversial, Gao said.
“Students have been able to adapt in the past,” she said. “I’m sure we will be able to do the same, no matter how awful it seems like it’ll be.”
While Gao is in favor of the change, she said that the focus group was not a fair way to voice the general opinion of the school.
“I think any non-anonymous discussion is an inaccurate representation of the student body,” she said. “There really can’t ever be an accurate representation because the student body isn’t comprised of a single voice or desire.”
With the new schedule change finally secured, there is a somewhat unanimous cry among the student population of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Since the announcement, there has been a wave of petitions to undo the schedule changes, including one by sophomore Hana Elabed.
Elabed, who also participated in the focus group and spoke at the School Board meeting, said that she “feels like we are being ignored,” and that the focus group was not paid proper attention.
“I felt like the students were blindsided by this new schedule and we didn’t have a say at all,” she said. “We the students are the ones most affected by the schedule so we are entitled to have input.”
Elabed said that the faculty and School Board have been extremely uncooperative, telling her that “there’s nothing you can do and a petition won’t do anything.” At the School Board meeting, she said that the Board “disregarded us and gave us weird looks the whole time,” when she spoke.
Sophomore Chris Machle is also opposed to the new schedule. He hopes to see the School Board overturn the changes, as the new schedule has received much opposition from the student population.
“I am very frustrated with the new schedule,” Machle said. “I haven’t talked to a single person at this school, including teachers and parents, who is in favor of this new schedule.”
Having four 90 minute classes, Machle said, strikes the perfect balance between class productivity and maintaining attention span. He believes that students benefit from having different class schedules every week.
“When you have the same schedule every day of the week, it can get monotonous,” he said.
He believes that the Monday schedule, which has seven classes and ends at 3:30, will disrupt the uniformity of current start times for school practices, also pointing out that he will miss three classes instead of one for games and races.
He said that the faculty’s efforts to minimize student stress are in vain.
“It will only create more stress,” Machle said. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Freshman Nick Loduca shares an identical opinion. He is unnerved that the faculty is able to make these changes without listening to the student reaction.
“The staff definitely has some say in it, but I think the students should have the majority of the say,” he said. “We’re the ones that have to go through it for the rest of high school.”