The introduction of the College and Career Center means students from both high schools will leave the school multiple times a week for different hours of the day. The current schedule will not meet the needs for the new CTE program because it is inconsistent from week to week, as well as between the two schools.

A committee of teachers and administrators from both high schools, administrators from the central office and representatives the teachers’ union are meeting to decide what changes will be made. They should be releasing a suggested schedule in the next month.

“If nothing else, it is imperative that the two high schools follow the same schedule on the same day, otherwise the CTE center will not work,” assistant principal Mike Norris, a member of the committee said.

The schedule they are likely to propose looks a lot like our current block schedule, but rather than getting block weeks a few times a month, they would be every week. On normal days, school would end at 3:10 instead of 3:05. Both late arrival and early release are still on the table, but the committee is unsure what days or times they will occur.

“I don’t think it’ll be a huge impact on students. It’s not a radical schedule change,” Norris said, “I think parents will appreciate the consistency of knowing that the dismissal times stay the same each week.”

The new schedule must account for teachers’ plan time and the required 1,160 hours students are required to spend at school every year. Since block weeks have less time, if regular weeks are taken out, the lost hours will have to be made up another way.

“It’s not necessarily that every day starts at 8:05 and ends at 3:05, it’s more that the schedule is consistent,” debate coach Jeff Plinsky said, who is also on the committee.

Students say they were not aware of the possibility of the schedule changing, but think having block every week would be better than the current schedule.

“We shouldn’t have a seventh hour,” senior Nate Holt said. “We should go back to how it used to be.”

Nothing regarding next year’s schedule is definitive, but the committee assures parents and students that it will be more consistent and easier to follow.

“We’re still trying to hash out the small details of what exactly that schedule is going to look like,” Plinsky said.