WOODBURYー Nonnewaug principal Mykal Kuslis and his administrative team decided to make a couple of changes to the Nonnewaug schedule entering the school year, but students and teachers have mixed feelings.

This year’s schedule includes eight periods. Mondays typically include all eight classes for about 41 minutes each, while the rest of the week includes four blocks per day — odds on Tuesday and Thursday and events on Wednesday and Friday. There are also Tribe, Chiefs, and Focus periods for 35 minutes on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday of each week.

Declan Curtin, one of the administrators who helped make the new schedule, thinks there are also pluses and minuses.

“There are always pluses and minuses for every new schedule you put out there,” Curtin said. “The most significant plus for the teaching side of this is that teachers have common planning time with their departments every single week which they did not have last year. It gives more time for teachers to teach and connect with students.”

Spanish teacher Karen Sandor is confused with the schedule but overall feels she can figure it out.

“I’m confused about the times of when classes end and start, but I think this will have a positive effect on the students and teachers,” Sandor said. “I like the longer blocks because they help teachers like me teach their students more. The main problem with the new schedule is seeing kids every other day. It feels like they won’t be able to remember as much stuff as if we saw them every day.”

Curtin also agrees with Sandor.

“Another good change to the schedule is that it gives teachers time to teach and help students understand the work they’re giving their students,” Curtin said. “It also gives students time to understand, acknowledge, and remember everything they are expected to learn.”

On the other hand, freshman student Martin Razo thinks that this new schedule could lead to problems.

“The main problem with this new schedule is that kids will not be able to sit and listen to a video or work on a paper for an hour and 20 minutes.” Razo said, “I don’t like seeing teachers every other day because if we have a paper due, most of the time kids forget about that paper because we don’t see these teachers every day. The only good thing I have to say about this new schedule is that kids get two days to do homework instead of us only having one day.”