Earlier in this school year, it was announced that the LVJUSD’s current trimester schedule would be changed to an A/B semester schedule. These changes will be implemented at the start of the 2024/2025 school year, hopefully making for a smooth and easy adjustment. Still, many students and teachers are apprehensive about whether or not this new schedule will be better than our present one. As anger and frustration rise in the student body, the GHS community begins to question if anybody actually wants this change.
The main point of controversy is not the semesters themselves, but rather the specifics of the particular schedule the district has chosen. The new schedule has 1st period starting at 8:40 in the morning. Classes will last for 90 minutes, with a 30-minute lunch starting at 11:55 and ending at 12:25. Many students take issue with the length of the lunch period. “I was here when lunch was 45 minutes, and that felt good. Because it gives you time to eat but also just decompress after classes. It gets you ready. Now I kinda feel like I’m rushing through eating,” stated junior Aspen Rosingana. Rosingana also expressed doubts about clubs not having enough time to meet during lunch, as it is difficult to have a meeting and still have time to eat in only 30 minutes.
Confusion arises surrounding the A/B portion of the schedule. There will be A days and B days, as well as A weeks and B weeks. Students will see half of their teachers on A days, and the other half on B days. English teacher Mrs. Galland says, “I am concerned about the switching every other day, I’m gonna have to wrap my head around that.”
Sophomore Caraline Hatch shared a similar sentiment, stating, “I’ll totally forget which classes I went to the day before. I don’t know, it could just get confusing.”
The A/B schedule also means that students may not be able to get as much help from their teachers. Only seeing teachers every other day means fewer chances for students to ask questions and get help.
There’s also been concern about classes being 90 minutes long (as opposed to the current 70-minute classes). Caraline Hatch mentioned that “a lot of kids nowadays have really short attention spans, so I think it’s just gonna make it harder for them to focus if they’re in class for a longer time.” Students seem to struggle with concentrating for even 70 minutes at a time, so why make it even harder for them? Hatch went on to say that “lunch is our only long enough period to give our brains a break… but if it’s only 30 minutes compared to the 90 minutes of being in class, then you aren’t really giving your brain enough time to… be ready for your next class. So I think it’s just kind of unfair.”
“Kind of unfair” seems to be the consensus among the students. The district claims that students and teachers wanted this. Before the schedule change was announced a survey was sent out. The survey consisted mostly of vague questions asking whether students wanted a more stress-free environment in which they could better connect with teachers. There was no mention of 90-minute classes to be found. But, since they sent out the survey, the district has been using it as an excuse to say that students wanted this schedule change.
When asked whether or not he thought that was true, GHS student Archer Bailiff said, “I think people wanted change, and I think they were very adamant with the changes that they wanted. I don’t think this was what they intended.” He brought up the fact that, with the new schedule, the district was trying to make everyone happy. In doing that, they failed to make anyone happy. Bailiff compared the schedule to a game of Jenga, saying that “if you try to keep a Jenga tower by pulling out all these bricks, it still might fall over. You have to be strategic about where things affect each other and how they sit on each other to keep it all from toppling because issues are dependent on other issues.”
90-minute classes on top of 30-minute lunches, semesters instead of trimesters, and a confusing A/B schedule. These pieces may be fine on their own, but together they create a vile concoction that no one is happy about. This “Jenga tower” of a schedule is made up of pieces that don’t sit well together, and might just fall apart.
