New schedule eliminates long block, restores balance to the universe

As the new school year gets back into session, students and staff may notice a big change to the format for each day- a new five day schedule has been introduced. 

The new schedule is 5 days long, with each day correlating to what day of the week it is. It also removes the polarizing long-block and regulates homeroom to every Wednesday morning after second block.

Gloucester High School’s 7 day rotating schedule had long been a staple of the GHS community. Homerooms and long blocks were permanent features of life in the school, even if they weren’t always liked.

“The 7 day schedule was super confusing, especially for people who weren’t paying perfect attention,” Sophomore Beatrix Brosnihan said. “They would get lost, they didn’t know what was happening, and teachers would get mad.”

Due to the confusion, staff and students requested a change to simplify the school day. While conducting polls among the staff as well as asking students, the administrative team found that long blocks in particular were unpopular. While they were designed to allow classes to have extended learning periods, many teachers found them to be more of a burden to organization.

“That was a conundrum that teachers often felt- that they were trapped in, because they might teach two of the same classes, but one has the long block today and one doesn’t have the long block until next week,” Principal James Cook said. “How do we keep these classes together?’” 

He and the staff found that it was better to lose the long block in favor of uniformity. Students still have seven blocks per day, and lunch either before or after fifth period.  Homeroom will be every Wednesday, which is an improvement from last year when it fell on different days each week. 

So far, the schedule has been quite a success. In particular, assigning the schedule to what day it is, so it is easier to know instantly where you are going when you come into school, has been greatly praised.

“The new schedule is so much easier than the old 7 day schedule,” GHS Junior April Smith said. “It’s a lot easier not to make a mistake on lunch now because it’s every other day, and I don’t need to worry about what block is first coming in each day. I’m so happy that they finally decided to change it.”

As we get farther into the year, we will see if the schedule persists with such popularity. But as of now, it seems that the administration has hit an organizational home run.

“Our schedules need to work for our vocational program, our AP program, our homeroom program, and that’s just to mention a few of the stakeholders,” Principal Cook said. “We have to look at the schedule from lots of different points of view, and as we’re a complex high school that does lots of different things for different students.”