Several weeks into the new school year, it’s clear that the new schedule has more positive than negative changes. 

With the old schedule, starting with homeroom was a nice buffer between arriving at school and first period, which gave students time to settle into class. However, not having a homeroom classroom means students get out of school earlier. Despite only a 10-minute difference, getting released from class at 2:30 p.m. is much better than leaving at 2:40 p.m., since we have more time to get to after-school activities or start homework. 

The new schedule also brought changes in morning announcements, now at the end of the first period. One negative of this is that many teachers are finishing up lessons at this time. Because many students are still in “learning mode,” they don’t focus on the announcements and miss important information. 

Last year we enjoyed more of the freedom that was offered during HATS. Having a HATS at the end of the day gave students more time to get additional help from teachers and others the ability to leave school if they didn’t have any concerns to address. Losing this HATS period in the new schedule, therefore, has shown to be more of a disadvantage. 

In addition, there are some changes to HATS we believe should be made, including the option to choose a HATS. For example, one of the Scholars Leadership classes investigated quiet versus social HATS. They recommended that students who want to focus on schoolwork during HATS should be able to have designated quiet areas to go to, and those that would like to talk to friends or classmates should have designated social areas. However, this plan was never implemented. 

Overall, we feel that students thrive more when given more independence and flexibility in their schedule. And by ending school earlier, gives students more time to work on whatever they need.

More about the new schedule: https://hatchat.org/2647/news/school/new-year-new-schedule/