Council’s New Schedule Proposal!

Council is proposing a new schedule for next year that aims to fix many of the current schedule’s issues. The first problem the proposed schedule fixes is that of Advisory. In a survey sent out by Council, a large number of students complained that they were not fans of once a week Advisory meetings and lunches. A Council representative, Locky McCann explained that, “With the new schedule, we’re hoping to put in enough time for Advisory, since this year’s schedule didn’t seem to have enough.” McCann later disclosed information suggesting that Council has had heated debates over whether they misread the data as students being unhappy that there is one Advisory Circle a week, instead of unhappy that there is one Advisory Circle a week. Either way, the solution is to make MUCH more time for advisory. 

Going forward there will be two Advisory Lunches a week and two additional Advisory Group Meditation sessions, which are meant to be for extended mindfulness activities. The two Advisory Lunch periods will be the only two lunch periods a week, happening Monday and Thursday. The rest of the week won’t have designated lunch periods, so  students will have to find time to eat during classes or free periods. This closely resembles the pre-Covid schedule, back when things were normal. Unfortunately, in this case, “normal” meant having to choose between digging in during class, or simply going hungry.

Along with not enough lunch periods, this new schedule brings back another relic from the past: Common Ground. For the underclassmen who didn’t experience the joys of Common Ground, it was a period in the pre-Covid schedule meant to create a fun bonding experience across grades. Think of it as Advisory, but with students from all different grades, and no guidelines for what to do. Upperclassmen might remember these periods as awkward, boring, and silent, but Council hopes that won’t be the case this time. Also, Common Ground will be the last period on Friday to “maximize fun” as McCann put it.

This schedule also fixes the problem of five minute passing periods on Wednesday; now all passing periods will be ten minutes. Unfortunately, these periods will push dismissal on Wednesday to 3:00. Also, there will be a new period on Wednesdays designated for the atrium and library to fill completely. “And the cafeteria will probably be full too!” adds McCann. However, the academic purpose of this period is unclear.

The hybrid block-period basis of the schedule remains unchanged. There will be an option to take block periods (labeled by numbers 1-6), and skinny periods (labeled by letters A-F). Teachers, once again, will be able to choose which type of class to teach, but students can choose what periods to take as blocks or skinnies. This concept might be confusing at first, but McCann asserts that it is way more simple than it seems. “Yeah, so basically people just won’t have to take block periods if they don’t want to” he states. Students will have the choice to leave class halfway through the period if it is a block. Students will now never be forced to sit through block periods, and they can fit more classes in their schedule by only going to half of each period. The only downside is that this may result in more homework per night. The concept of leaving block periods early is promising, so don’t be surprised if next year some of your classmates take a break halfway through class and never come back.

The new schedule might be a little hard to process at first, with so many changes and different class formats available, but Council is optimistic that it will be adopted smoothly next fall. After all, this will be the fifth schedule change in five years, so students are used to adjusting by now. And, as always, the complexity of the schedule itself is evidence of how hard Council has been working to find a solution. This new schedule shows a real sensitivity to the desires of the student body by allowing Advisory to meet almost every day, and true flexibility by letting students choose what periods to take as blocks. Although a perfect schedule might not exist, this one does come pretty darn close.