Next Tuesday Menlo will be beginning a trial of the new seven day rotation schedule. Photo courtesy of John Schafer.

By Ty Corley

Next year, Menlo will be utilizing a new daily schedule that will impact students greatly. The schedule will be debuted on May 10 of this year to see if it runs smoothly. The new schedule includes added tutorial and sleep-in time and consists of seven instead of nine rotation days.

According to John Schafer, the Upper School Director, the new schedule was designed to decrease student stress and the frenetic pace of the school. “We are building on the work done [on the older schedules],” Schafer said. In order to achieve this decrease in student stress, the administration added both tutorial and sleep-in time.

One of the glaring new additions to the schedule that has some students grumbling is the implementation of 70-minute class periods, which will now occur four times a day. Other new features include 45-minute tutorials every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and assemblies, class meetings and advocacies on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The decrease of the amount of classes per day has garnered the praise of some students. “I think having 4 classes instead of 6 is much nicer,” sophomore Kate Barrett said.

However, with the first block of the day being directly followed by a 45-minute tutorial or Student Life, there will be a increased temptation for students to skip first block on occasion. “If people have non-academic classes first period, it may be more likely for them not to come” Barrett said.

The extended class periods could be beneficial for certain courses, but some students worry that others could suffer. “The big step back is with languages,” senior Maddie Stewart said, “It is important to have more frequent classes to learn the language.”

Conversely, science classes like Biotech and ASR will benefit from the extra long classes as they will be useful for labs. Junior Doran Finley voiced his appreciation for the new schedule. “It’s [going to] be nice for science classes because usually they feel rushed,” Finley said.

The administration lowered the number of classes per day in order to decrease the amount of daily homework. However, some students voiced concerns about the proposed decrease in homework. “Knowing Menlo teachers, they will find a way to assign more homework,” sophomore Julia Fry said.

With less frequent meetings, teachers will likely be forced to pack more material into each class session. “Homework will go up because teachers have to move at faster paces,” Maddie Stewart said.

Another big change with this new schedule was the creation of daily Student Life periods. Student Life periods include tutorials, assemblies, class meetings, and advocacy meetings. Instead of basing what is happening during Student Life on what day in the nine day rotation it is, the new schedule bases the Student Life activity on the day of the week. This change has made it easier to understand what’s on tap for the day. “I like what they are doing with Student Life blocks” Julia Fry Said.

The added tutorial time will be vital to students who have busy schedules. “More tutorial is a good idea, especially for athletes who need to do homework during the day,” senior Charlie Roth said.

The longer classes may also be an issue for those who find it hard to sit through the current 55 minute classes. “There could be a decrease in focus,” Roth added. “Ten more minutes of class won’t seem like a big deal, but [it] will change how teachers teach.”

“It’s going to be hard for people with short attention spans, who bore easily in these longer blocks,” Junior Charlie Ferguson said.

The current schedule has been used for nine years and consists of a nine day rotation. Before our current nine day schedule, Menlo used a five day schedule. However, according to John Schafer there were problems with that schedule because of sports conflicts. Using the five day schedule, students repeatedly missed the same class every week because of early-dismissal matches.

After the administration realized the five day schedule could no longer function for them, Menlo surveyed their students to figure out a new schedule. They configured a nine day schedule with new sleep-in and tutorial periods, both integral themes to the creation of the forthcoming seven day schedule.

The newest edition of the schedule will be implemented as of May 10 with hopes to lighten student workloads and reduce stress without sacrificing rigor.