Schedule committee presents schedule models to faculty and staff

The+schedule+committee+met+with+high+school+faculty+and+middle+and+lower+school+administrators+about+the+2023-24+schedule%2C+which+will+start+at+8%3A30+a.m.+and+end+at+3%3A30+p.m.+every+day.++

Sarah Abdesalam

The schedule committee met with high school faculty and middle and lower school administrators about the 2023-24 schedule, which will start at 8:30 a.m. and end at 3:30 p.m. every day.

Amy Ren, Assistant Editor

The high school schedule committee presented four models for how to revise the daily schedule to the high school faculty Oct. 12. The high school committee and administrators also met with middle and lower school administrators and part of their schedule change committees Oct. 20 to discuss models and begin coordinating possible schedules across Lab’s Historic Campus.

The high school schedule change committee started their process in November 2021, work that is necessary because beginning in September 2023, the school day will begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at 3:30 p.m.

“We have worked since last winter, researching and creating possible models and gone through many ideas and thrown out many ideas,” said committee co-chair Jane Canright, a math teacher. “We worked it down to four models that have some significant differences from each other.”

Co-chair Aria Choi, a counselor, emphasized that the meeting with high school faculty was to share the models and provide an update on the committee’s work, not to vote or determine which model to use.

Although the committee had met with department heads earlier, the Oct. 12 meeting was the first time high school faculty learned about the four models and had a chance to give feedback about their concerns. However, since the presentation was on Zoom, the co-chairs said there were few opportunities for a full discussion.

“There were questions, there were some concerns expressed. I think a lot of people are still processing what the issues are going to be,” Ms. Canright said. “So we didn’t get a lot of feedback, but little by little, it’s starting to trickle in by email and so forth. So I think mostly at this point, it’s people asking questions and expressing concerns about certain things and clarifying whether those things would be possible in the different models.”

On Oct. 20, committee members and administrators representing the lower, middle and high schools met to compare the models each school has developed. The P.E., art, music, computer science and world language departments share faculty and spaces across the historic campus, so schedules for these schools must fit together.

Ms. Choi said, “The plan is to identify common priorities and developmental needs of the students, to see how we can reflect that in a schedule that works for this campus, specifically in the shared time and spaces.”