Upper School students might need to get ready to say goodbye to A, B and C days. The administration will make major changes to the Upper School schedule next year that will likely involve the elimination of the current block schedule system.

The changes, which have not been finalized, were partially spurred by a need to accommodate the arrival of the sixth-graders to the Upper School next year, and are also being made in response to research and community feedback.

According to Dean of Students and Interim High School Principal Roz Landy, the schedule changes will be different for the middle school and high school. Both schedules will still involve some rotation, but the high school schedule will have more rotation than the middle school schedule.

After the administration announced that the sixth grade would be moving into the Upper School, a committee was formed to redesign the schedules.

According to Director of Instructional Technology Ginger Thornton, who led the committee, the many special schedules that the current system includes were a source of frustration among teachers and students. Thornton also said that the new schedules, specifically the middle school schedule, are being created based on research suggesting that shorter classes that meet frequently are more beneficial to students than longer classes that meet less frequently.

Landy agreed that the current schedule was not ideal, especially for the middle school.

“We needed to develop a new schedule for middle school students that was more developmentally appropriate for them,” Landy said.

According to Thornton, the changes are also part of an effort to create a greater distinction between the middle and high schools and to address the problem that the middle school runs “more like a junior high school.” The hope is that the middle school and the high school will function more independently, so that each section becomes more specifically tailored to the needs of its students.

“The fact of the matter is middle schoolers need more consistency, and high schoolers don’t,” Thornton said.

Thornton says nothing is official yet and most likely won’t be until students register for classes in about a month.

“Once we have an idea of how registration shakes out, we will have a better idea of what the models will look like,” Thornton said.