Drastic changes were made to the middle and high school schedules for the 2016-17 school year, and the administration recently began the process of receiving formal feedback from students and faculty.

A survey was sent out to middle school students and faculty on Oct. 31, while the high school received it a few days later on Nov. 3. The administration waited several weeks into the first quarter before asking students to assess the schedule because they thought it was important for students to pilot it first.

“We wanted to make sure we had enough time to think about and discuss what we had heard thus far, and we wanted to incorporate as much as we could that seemed like it was relevant and on the minds of people,” High School Principal and Associate Head of School Dr. Marc Lindner said.

The survey was compiled with the help of Dr. Meredith Woocher, an outside consultant. Woocher is a self-employed researcher and evaluator who works with Jewish organizations like schools, synagogues, federations and foundations. The scheduling committee at CESJDS, which is made up of different teachers in various departments, helped write the survey questions. The administration identified potential problems with the schedule and sent this information to Woocher, who compiled it into a formal survey.

“[Woocher] has been a great, excellent resource,” Lindner said. “The content of the survey is coming from us here at JDS and [Woocher] has been a great resource as to how to conduct and design the survey.”

After the survey is completed, Woocher will be the first to see the results. She will then compile them into a report so that the administration can see the major strengths and weaknesses of the schedule according to the school community.

“We will not be seeing names of the students or faculty because we wanted that to be confidential and we didn’t want people to feel uncomfortable sharing how they really are feeling about the schedule for any reason, either because other people complain and they are feeling good about something or vice versa,” Middle School Principal Rebecca Weisman said.

Both Lindner and Weisman agree that the results of the survey could lead to possible changes for the second semester and future school years.

Junior Brooke Cohen finds the new schedule to be highly inconvenient with sports, and hopes that the administration makes changes for next year. Because the same two periods are at the end of the day during the week, Cohen consistently misses the same classes for her sporting events.

“I have fallen so behind in those two classes and it is really stressful having the same two [at the end of the day,]” Cohen said.

The changes to the schedule were created by a scheduling committee last school year. One of the goals of the new schedule was having shorter blocks for classes that benefit from meeting frequently, like languages and math, and longer blocks for more discussion-based classes.

English teacher Nancy Wassner, who was a member of the scheduling committee, feels that this goal has been difficult to carry out due to the size, schedule and the number of classes the school has.

“I teach two [junior] advanced English classes: one is in a shorter block and one is in a longer block.” Wassner said. “That’s really hard, and we had really hoped to make it so that wouldn’t happen, so that students and teachers would have a much more streamlined experience.”

Though the shorter and longer blocks have presented problems for Wassner, she loves the community time block of the day. She also appreciates having consistent class times all week long. Sophomore Liam Shemesh also likes the increased consistency.

“I like how the classes are at the same point every day,” Shemesh said. “It is very organized and I know what classes I have and when the breaks are.”

Lindner has also heard positive feedback about the increased consistency for students. On the other hand, he has also received feedback from students who dislike the schedule due to the rapid pace of the school day.

“Hopefully people have been putting into their surveys honest appraisals of what is working and what isn’t working,” Weisman said. “We will continue to work to figure out how to make this schedule really successful as much as we can for everybody.”