WOODBURY — New school year, new classes and a new schedule. How will Nonnewaug’s new eight-period schedule starting in the fall of 2024 affect students’ hardworking minds and stress?
Starting this fall, students will have all eight periods Mondays, and the rest of the week will be split into odd and even block days. Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays will also include an advisory/flex period.
Mykal Kuslis, Nonnewaug’s principal, says there are mixed feelings and emotions that the students will have, but thinks that this change will be for the better.
“There will probably be a wide response,” Kuslis says. “For the students who want to take more classes and have more opportunities to earn more credits earlier, I do think that it will be good for them to have that ability. For our freshmen and sophomores especially, it will give them some time in the day to do work with the study hall. I’m sure that there are some students that will struggle with those long blocks.”
Some students don’t know how to feel yet about having longer class periods for most of the week. Jadyn Heron, a freshman at NHS, thinks that there are advantages and drawbacks with the new schedule.
“It gets the credits we need, but I think the longer classes are really going to take a toll on us students who already can’t handle two block [days] a week,” Heron says. “I think that with it being almost every day, people might struggle by sitting there the whole class period.”
Like Heron, Henry Keil, a sophomore, has multiple opinions on the new schedule and thinks that change from our current schedule is not needed.
“I think the seven periods are better,” Keil says. “it’s been working for the last two years and I don’t think that the change will be good. [But] with ag, it will be helpful because even though the longer periods are not better, the [extra opportunity for] study halls will help us.”
Freshman Cash Medonis agrees with Keil on how an extra period will help students, including ones who participate in ag.
“It’s going to give everyone, especially the ag students, more time to study,” Medonis says.
Laila Jones, a sophomore, also has mixed feelings.
“It makes my day feel longer and I feel that I would have more homework, but it also gives me more opportunities to take more classes and get more credits,” Jones said.
Chris Maclean, the counseling department chairperson, agrees with Kuslis and thinks that the new schedule will be beneficial.
“For some students, most are going to have a study hall, but for some students that have so many areas of interest, it can give them an extra period,” Maclean says. “In terms of getting extra help from teachers or working with other students, if you have a project or collaborating, that study hall that a lot of students will be able to [take can be helpful].”
Even though some students are in favor of the schedule, there are some who dread it already – and this school year hasn’t even ended.
Freshman Annalie Taylor feels anxiety about the idea of having longer class periods.
“It’s going to overwhelm people with having so many classes, and it’s going to be a long day,” Taylor says.
Even through all of these mixed feelings and emotions about the increased blocks in the eight-period schedule, teachers and staff will try their best to make it work for the students.
“We are going to try to do the best we can for students, coming up with new practices to break up those long blocks to look at them as almost two periods, because even for an adult sitting down for 80 [minutes] is tough,” Kuslis says. “Recognizing their needs is very important.”
