A new schedule was implemented in High and Middle School the beginning of the fourth bimester in order to restore something more closely to the prepandemic routine.

Changes made by the administration include extending classes by five minutes, starting school five minutes earlier, moving Mentorship to only Wednesdays, and eliminating mini-office-hours before Window.

“The other changes were not super noticeable but the longer classes feel like they last forever,“ Mateo Valencia, Grade 11, said.

Before the pandemic students received about 1700 minutes of instruction per week, but after entering distance learning the minutes were reduced to 1300.

“We did that because it was important to keep a balance between time off-screen and time on-screen. When we came back on campus this year, we decided to increase the time a little bit more,” Lopez said.

Further changes are not planned for the remaining school year, and how this new routine will affect performance in the last bimester of the year is still unknown.

“We’ve been having the Academic Committee [meetings] this week to analyze quarter three performance, and when you look at [the data] it is similar to quarter one and quarter two. So looking at the data, I really don’t see any changes,” Lopez said.

The changes have had mixed reactions, with some students critizing how their Window break time was cut short.

“Some students were used to having the longer Window, especially when we were doing the mini-office-hours. People were not taking advantage of that, they were just having a longer Window. So people who enjoyed that and didn’t need the help or were not seeking help from teachers are not happy with the change,” Lopez said.

Lopez also indicated there would be future changes for the 2022-2023 academic year that would extend classes to 70 minutes.

“We changed the schedule because we wanted to increase the instructional minutes to 1500. And for next year, the aim is to get pretty close to 1700. Like we were before the pandemic,” Lopez said.

Although students and teachers barely notice the 200 weekly minute increase in class time, some have expressed concern about the changes planned for next year.

“This bimester’s schedule didn’t change my routine at all, but for the next year I imagine that the changes will have big changes in my routine,” Valencia said.