For the rest of the month, students at SCHS will have to adapt to a special schedule in order to accommodate a number of events.

The schedule will work around the PSAT on Oct. 14, an Anti-Bullying Assembly on Oct. 16, two staff development days Oct. 22-23, and Homecoming on Oct. 30.

To create the new schedule, Principal Greg Shelby coordinated the events within the hours of school, since schools in the U.S. need to have 180 days and 1,080 hours of school within one school year, according to the Education Commision of the States.

“I had to contact the district to make sure the schedule met the hours needed, and we are well within our parameters,” Shelby said.

While the new schedule has resulted in school activities and a two-day break for students, it has disturbed parent work schedules, since parents must figure out a way to get their children to and from school at the different start and end times while still meeting their work commitments  The new schedule has also impacted teachers’ lesson plans.

“We do realize the schedule affects classroom time and it’s disruptive, but we try to accommodate,” Shelby said.  

Many teachers create their lesson plan in advance, but with this schedule, they must alter their plans for the month since the schedule requires shorter class times and different periods for each day, thus disturbing lesson plans.

“The changes to the schedule make it hard to to keep all the different classes in the same place for curriculum, and it distracts the students,” English teacher Maichen Liu-Grossman said.

Jeannine Alves, parent of senior Nick Alves, felt affected by the schedule change, and recommended committing to a consistent schedule.

“The school district has a bad attitude towards parent functions when you have working families and students with sports and jobs and parents who are not home during the day,” she said.

Although students are getting less hours of school, some are excited for some change. like junior Anjelina Manuel who said she was looking forward to shorter classes and waking up later. In the same way, senior Kenzel Wallace thinks the new schedule gives the students a break.

“It doesn’t affect my learning, if anything it gives me more of an opportunity to study and rest my mind because we start late on some days,” senior Kenzel Wallace said.