The new schedule for the upcoming school year is virtually a copy of last year’s schedule, but with a few logical changes. This year, CA fixed some of the things that had been minor issues.
Last year, the Monday schedule featured short, 40 minute blocks including every major, and three to four 70 minute blocks each other day. Once the school figured out the necessity for staggered lunches, last year’s schedule worked quite well. However, the same classes met at nearly the same time of day, which meant that early dismissals for sports ate into the same classes or assemblies each time. For example, instead of G block being last or second to last every day it meets, this year G block meets last once, first once, and in the middle once. F block was last both Wednesday and Friday last year, but in the new schedule it meets first on Friday to give greater variety in the schedule. As for assemblies, they will still be after the last class on Wednesdays, but on Fridays all school assemblies will happen during the extended lunch block so that students do not have to miss assembly as they did last year.
For everyone who was at CA last year, this schedule will feel familiar, which is a great move on the school’s part. To have three vastly different schedules over three years would cause unnecessary confusion, and the chances of the administration settling on one better than what we had last year are low. It will take some adjusting to remember to go to a class first one day and last another, but it will certainly be worth it to not have to sit through the same last-block class multiple times a week. This is an especially helpful change because it is often harder to focus during the last block of the day. Thus, shifting the meeting times of these late-day classes may lead to an improvement in students’ academic performance. While some team sport players might be a bit sad to miss club block on Fridays instead of an assembly to go to a game, the change to hold monthly assemblies during lunch will make necessary meetings like elections much easier.
One potential change that the school did not make that I believe necessary, especially for students who take the train, would be to return late start days to the original 9:30 start time, instead of 9:20 which adds anxiety since the train only has to be a couple of minutes late for students on that train to be late for chapel. After the start time was changed last year some students took the earlier train to ensure they did not get a cut for being late to chapel, depriving them of an hour of sleep, and as such moving it back to the original 9:30 time would provide a lot of benefit for such a small change.
Overall, however, last year’s schedule ran relatively smoothly and this is just a small improvement over that, with each class’ three start times becoming more staggered and assemblies on Fridays moving to lunch block.
