Since its launch in the 2022-23 school year, the current schedule has been heavily critiqued, debated, and criticized by many, however, it appears next year there will be some changes.
Students and staff identify the 7 block day as the main controversy of the current schedule, leading to stressful and packed days, as well as inadequate amounts of class time to accomplish work. Now, after two school years, it seems the current schedule will meet the end of its tenure.
Based on the most recent draft of a new bell schedule for next year, here are some of the notable differences:
- gold/black days will rotate, 7 block days are abolished
- TA times change to 35 minutes on black days and 10 minutes during gold days
- TA moved to after lunch two
- ELOs are now at the very end of the day
- Classes are now five minutes longer (75 minutes instead of 70)
After presenting the new schedule to students, one commented “I like how there is no 7-block day and it [instead] just rotates gold to black.”
Another student added “the new schedule [is better] because there are no 7 block days. Those are super stressful, and so it’s better just not to have them.” Many others agreed.
Another student also pointed out they “[Liked] keeping the ELOs the same, and not taking much of the ELO time as I find ELOs very important [for] making sure I keep up with my work.”
While many students favored the reformatted schedule featuring end of day ELOs and no 7 block wednesday, one student stated “I feel the ELOs are just kinda not really useful. I don’t think we really need two ELOs on black days. [I would replace the ELOs with] early dismissal.”
In addition, a commonly criticized aspect of the new schedule was the late and longer TA times, with one student claiming “[I would change] having the TA that late- It’s kinda annoying. I don’t think everything else needs to be changed” and another student followed up, stating “I’d find a way to make the ELOs longer, and reduce the 35-minute TA to maybe 25.”
Despite this schedule change for next year seeming favored by most, many different teachers noted they feel “like at some point we have to stop changing it because the consistent change might be the bad thing.”
However, one teacher did point out “I will say I do think the schedule is a fair compromise between all the different people and all [the] different permutations.”
Another teacher also identified a less obvious positive silver-lining, mentioning “I like that ELO is at the end of the day. ELO at the end of the day means that athletes and other people that have to leave school early aren’t missing class time as much, just ELO.”
When asked, many teachers also agreed with students that the up and coming schedule feels better, mainly due to the ELOs at the end of the day as well as the abolishment of 7-block days.
Jess Deane, a learning coordinator at Harwood who has had a major involvement in creating the new schedule, has been working hard to create a new schedule that reflects as much of the feedback given by stakeholders as possible to help continue to improve the schedule’s ability to best fit the school. She commented that “When we surveyed staff and students and did some focus groups, by far just a gold black rotation was the favorite, so that gets rid of the Wednesdays that feel hectic for students”
On the opposing end, Deane also identified “One downside of this schedule is for students who want to do things outside of the building, it might make it a little harder because there aren’t set weeks.”
However, she did mention that all these things are theoretical (as well as other teachers) until we actually have a chance to live through the schedule and see what truly works better and worse.
In conclusion, after two years of opposition by most to the current schedule mainly due to the 7-block Wednesdays, that, according to one teacher, “feel like a [mid-week] hurdle”, next year, Harwood will be receiving a new schedule that, on paper, looks to favor faculty and students alike, driven by the switch to a rotating gold-black day schedule.
