A new Monday late start schedule launched the second semester of the 2018-2019 school year.

Changes include the relocation of the lunch period to an earlier time, addition of an eight minute passing period between sixth and seventh period and incorporation of breaks after every two classes.

“I definitely like the new late start schedule more than before. Lunch after fourth period makes more sense to me because it makes more sense to have a break every two periods instead of one break after one long stretch of three periods,” junior Rashika Singh said.

Within the first two weeks of school, some students and teachers acknowledged the difficulty of sustaining their energy levels throughout periods three, four and five without a break. In comparison to the other days of the week, lunch period on Monday late start is held nearly an hour after.

“As we went into [the school year of 2018~2019], right off, probably the first two weeks of school, people realized that the difference in lunch between Monday and rest of the week was pretty significant,” principal Christopher Krebs said.

At the beginning of the 2018~2019 school year, teachers did not anticipate such complaints from students because the Monday lunch period was held at nearly the same time as the previous school year’s Monday lunch period.

“In general, students don’t like Mondays. So seeing all of those classes at one time, when we’re used to the slower pace of block schedule, [makes] Mondays seem a bit frantic and jarring,” English teacher Christine Haley said.

Administrators have speculated that some of the 10 to 15 percent of students who have classes during seventh and eighth period may not approve of the change because they have four classes after lunch as opposed to three.

“It is a very small percentage of the school [that have seventh and eighth class periods]. [In response], we increased the passing period time between sixth and seventh [period] to make it an eight minute passing period,” Krebs said.

The current block schedule for the entire week is being further discussed during the second semester by thoroughly examining feedback from both students and teachers. The administration and the teachers have been questioning the efficacy of having tutorial at the end of the day.

“It takes on a different role in students. When tutorial was in the morning, students use to prepare and get support. Now, students use tutorial to make up work,” Krebs said.

Application of changes to the new block schedule is not yet finalized. Feedback from students and teachers will continue to be examined in order to determine whether further changes need to be made.