An excited student heads to her guidance counselor meeting to discuss her schedule for the next school year. She’s put a lot of thought into all of the classes she wants to take, only to learn that she would have to sacrifice her lunch period to be able to take them.

“I wanted to take more advanced classes to challenge myself,” said Kaia Rouse, a freshman at RHS. “I ended up choosing a lunch period over these advanced classes.” Kaia expressed that some of her friends who chose advanced classes over a lunch break are struggling and often have no time to eat lunch during the school day at all. 

This is the case for many students at RHS. With the way our schedule is currently organized, it limits the amount of options students have. Most students prioritize the required classes and a lunch period, but then they have no space for electives they want to take. 

During the 2020-2021 Covid-19 school year, we had a very different schedule: four hour-long classes per day and no school on Wednesday. Although this schedule change was a temporary result of the pandemic, teachers say they preferred the longer periods. 

As students readjusted to the original schedule, questions arose. Was the Covid schedule better? How can we incorporate the things we liked about the Covid schedule into our schedule now?

With this in mind, Ed Davenport and Albert Cousins collaborated with 4-5 teachers to conduct research about alternate schedules that could work better for RHS. They visited Mamaroneck High School and Somers High School and also met with several experts. 

“When there was a snow day this year the scheduling committee met virtually with a scheduling consultant and it was productive and informative,” said Justin Randall, Geometry teacher at RHS and member of the schedule research team. 

Over this time, the team evaluated different schedules and ultimately came up with one that would best suit the needs of students and teachers. The goal was to have longer class periods while also allowing students to take up to 8 different classes. Including Community Lunch into the schedule was a priority as well, seeing as so many students enjoyed it last year. 

The proposed schedule would include six 55 minute-long classes everyday and a 50 minute Community Lunch for the whole high school. The classes would rotate over an 8 day cycle. Students would be able to take up to 8 classes and still have a lunch period everyday. The school day would still start at 8:00 am and end at 2:35 pm. 

To many students, this schedule seems like a great idea. Students who want to take advanced/extra classes would ideally be able to without having to give up their lunch period.

But even with the exciting news of a possible new schedule, there is still a lot more planning and preparation to be done. Meetings with students, parents, and teachers need to occur and the plan needs to be formally announced; furthermore, planning for a new schedule would take one whole school year before being put into effect.  

RHS staff are continuously looking for ways to improve our academic experience. The scheduling team dedicated time and effort to research different schedules in order to come up with the best one for RHS students. Even after a new schedule is implemented, they will continue to work on making our experience better.

You, as a student, have a voice in decisions about the new schedule. Now is your time to express your opinions, concerns, and ideas about the possible new schedule.

What do you think of this new schedule? Do you like the current system or is it time for a fresh start? 

Leave a comment!