When students return from summer vacation in August, they will see several changes in the bell schedule. Most notably, instead of occasional Early Release days, students will have a Late Start schedule every Thursday.
Lunch will be only 30 minutes instead of the current 35 minutes. School officials expect students will complain about having a shorter lunch, but many factors go into creating a bell schedule and campus officials do not always have control over scheduling.
According to principal Jon Caffrey, most of the school district will adjust to a late start schedule to allow teachers from across the district to collaborate during the early morning period.
“It’s going to be a positive change because it’s based on student outcomes with the goal of aligning specific subjects with what other sites are doing, and giving them the opportunity for them to connect,” Caffery said. “The district wants to create consistency for larger groups to get the opportunity to meet from time to time. The way we do it right now, they get roughly 30 minutes by the time they’ve traveled from school to school, gotten settled, and actually met up.”
The biggest adjustment to a Late Start schedule is that Zero Period will not meet on Thursdays. Instead, teachers have a professional development (PD) meeting from 8:15-9:15 a.m. and then First Period begins at 9:30 a.m.
The change means that Zero Period classes will meet for only four days a week instead of five days a week.
Environmental science teacher Danica Perez says that Zero Period teachers like herself will make the new schedule work. “Your teachers are resilient, and we’ll do what’s best for our students,” she said.
Perez says that busy students might welcome the change. “Students who are taking Zero Period traditionally have very full schedules, so maybe this will help them balance things,” she said.
Perez cannot skip content in her AP and IB classes. Instead, she plans to use a “flipped classroom” model on most Thursdays. Students will watch videos and some lectures at home. She will then host discussions when they return to class. “Students will be responsible for some learning before class,” she said. “Class time will be reserved for interactive activities.”
Sophomore Jad Ismail said that he’s looking forward to the Late Start schedule, but has concerns about the logistics regarding an asynchronous Zero Period.
“I’m pretty excited about it, especially because I’m gonna be able to sleep in on a day later in the week,” Ismail said. “But it’s definitely gonna be a weird adjustment to learn in person, to online, to in person again.”
School officials do not have the complete list of daily schedules to share at this time, but they are proposing that Zero Period begin at 7:25 a.m. on regular school days compared to the current 7:28 a.m. start. School will end every day at 3:30 p.m.
