Schedule Changes Coming to High Schools Second Semester

Photo by Caroline Mills 

SMSD is introducing changes to the high school schedule for the upcoming semester in order to create time for professional development.

Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays will continue to be seven period days. Wednesdays and Thursdays will be block with 85-minute classes. The 20 minutes usually spent at the beginning of Thursday’s seminar for LINK crew activities will fall on Wednesdays after first hour. Thursdays will begin at 8:50, and there will also be a 50 minute seminar between second and fourth hour.

The 75 minute period before school on Thursdays will be used for meetings between teachers of the same subject.

“Teachers will use this time to work together,” director of secondary administration, Dr. Joe Gilhaus, said. “This will overall create stronger curriculum and end up benefiting student grades.”

English teacher, Kristen Anderson, is looking forward to having time to create stronger lessons for her students. The English department is planning on using this time to go over essays to common methods for grading papers.

“For the past few years the district has encouraged us and told us teachers that we should do common assessments and teach the same skills,“ Anderson said. ”If you are expecting for us to teach in unison we need that time to plan.”

She also sees some downsides. For example, trying to finish long make-up tests during a shorter seminar.

Students who ride the bus also have problems with the new schedule because they will still come to school at the same time due to conflicts with the bus schedule at Indian Hills. Each high school will have a designated area for bus riders until they are allowed to head to class or see a teacher.

“I don’t really think it’s fair to have all of the students who ride the bus arrive at school at the normal time,” bus rider and sophomore Ella Stotts said. “I think the bus company should work around Indian Hill’s bus schedule.”

Though people such as Stotts find these changes inconvenient, SMSD believes the positive change will outweigh the problems.