Currently, a new schedule change for WA is being considered. The potential plan involves extending the school day by ten minutes, changing dismissal from 1:55 to 2:10, allowing five minutes in between classes, and implementing a ten minute break after second block. According to this article, Principal James Antonelli believes this will be a beneficial change if or when it does occur, but the overall impact on the WA student body and teachers may be more negative than anticipated.

The ten minute break in the proposed scheduling change, according to Antonelli, is supposed to provide students with time to buy breakfast or stop by their lockers. However, by a few weeks into the school year, most students have developed methods to go to their lockers in-between classes. Additionally, with the break occurring only one block before lunch, many may not choose to eat breakfast as lunch with take place within an hour.

As with many of the changes or implemented activities that have taken place in school such as double A blocks or the “no homework over break” rule, the schedule change is thought to decrease students’ stress because it is slightly more relaxed with its ten minute break and extra minute between classes. Though the extra minute diminishes the need for a student to rush from one class to another in the event of one class being on the opposite side of the school from another, it will not help with reducing stress from students’ typical primary stressor: the homework workload.

Ten minutes is rarely enough time for a student to begin his or her homework, let alone finish it, and that time will more likely be spent congregating with friends, much like in the morning before 7:30. If administration wished to assist with the stress from the homework load, it would be far more beneficial to implement a weekly study hall or DLT period for all students to work on anything they need to.

Additionally, because other Westford schools will not move their dismissal time back, WA’s delayed dismissal time would affect the bus schedule as there may not be enough time for bus drivers to  pick up and drop off students from the other Westford schools. This may also affect students who have after school activities and jobs, as they will have less time to get home in between school and these activities.

The dismissal time not only affects students, but teachers as well. For teachers with younger children in other school districts, or even middle school students in Westford who have a dismissal of 1:50 pm, pushing back dismissal affects the time they are able to pick them up and causes scheduling issues in their personal lives.

WA’s current schedule is something that all faculty and students are comfortable with and have adapted to. Why change it for an idea that may cause more issues than benefits for the student body and teachers?