With the start of the new school year comes changes made to improve the school climate and community. This year’s focus surrounded scheduling, including Flex and the drop schedule. According to Associate Principal David Plotkin, the changes began last year when the student improvement leadership team (SILT) questioned the productivity of students during Flex and its intended use. Many students had Flex and lunch back-to-back last year, and this caused Flex to feel like an extension of lunch and not a productive time. Moving things around, Flex fit nicely after second period. In terms of the flex software, Plotkin mentioned how the old software was “clunky, confusing, and unfit for our schools needs” as it could not accommodate the new flex schedule. “Right around this time, we had been introduced to the flex software on Powerschool.” Everyone already uses it so it is very convenient. The cut off for signing out is 10:05 each day. According to Plotkin, In regards to the flex scheduling with SAT prep days, academic days, open days, and climate/SEL days, they all originated with one question in mind: how do we leverage flex to expand school climate and build relationships among students? Plotkin expanded on this by sharing,“Last year, NEASC visited and did our schools’ reaccreditation. They wanted to see more student intervention programming, to fill the gaps of ELA and math in students of need. Obviously we can’t take only certain students, so we identified Flex as an opportunity for everybody to take advantage and benefit from some structure.”
SILT believed making all schedule changes at once would prevent overwhelming students later into the year. After the changing of Flex was identified, then arose the change of the drop schedule. “The drop schedule was simply a convenience of mind”, said Plotkin. Previously, the schedule would count down from periods 8/4, now it starts with 1/5. It’s easier to remember counting forwards than backwards, Plotkin noted..
Students are responding differently to these changes. Junior Eva Downes stated,“The flex software is nice and convenient; Flex is nice as it actually feels like a study hall instead of extra time that people waste on social time.” On the contrary, Sophomore Toby Jordan believes that there is a downside to this new software, saying, “You are not able to access it on your phone, and that’s the student’s main device.” However, he does agree that it is “easier to use than the previous software.”
