By Jeffrey Mu ’24
More than a month into the new year, students are getting used to the new Bellarmine schedule that was implemented the first day of the semester. Whether good or bad, students are still getting accustomed to having community and flex time right after lunch, with a shorter lunch period and break beforehand. We interviewed different teachers and students about their likes and dislikes on the new schedule, as well as what the administration could consider as an alternative.
Mr. Young – Newspaper Supervisor, Sanguine Humors Coach
Q. What are your thoughts on the new schedule?
A. Well, with the new schedule, it’s hard to schedule out the new changes with the way that teaching happens and the way Bell operates these days with Covid. Of course, I’m looking forward to the day here you can teach without wearing a mask and with more solid footing in terms of expectations, with so many students coming and going, but I think this new schedule has potential to excel in terms of what students can do.
Q. What do you think are the benefits of the schedule?
A. For me personally, the new schedule, I like the new schedule because it provides more academic support to students who need it, and its not like students are leaving at the end of the day, skipping flex time just because they can, now they are encouraged to go to the classes they need help with. Also, I think it’s a more structured approach, whenever we see massive changes from different grade levels, students can come in and receive help on their homework.
Q. What do you think are the negatives of the new schedule?
A. For one, students now have humongous amount of free time in between the day, and it can be somewhat restricting when you have a free period, lunch, community/flex time and have a class right at the end of the day, however I suppose that if students have a test in their last period they would have more time to study, so it goes both ways. Overall though, I like it for the most part.
Q. If you could change the schedule, what would you change it to?
Honestly, I have no clue. It’s the easiest thing to sit back and criticize the work of other people but its very hard to have a flex time where everyone is satisfied — obviously everyone has a very different schedule. I would definitely not have it at the end of the day, but also not smack dab in the middle, so maybe after first or during the short break? That way students have more time to eat lunch.
Ms. Crockett– Yearbook Supervisor
Q. What are your thoughts on the new schedule?
A. I like it, it’s good.
Q. What do you think are the benefits of the schedule?
A. I have more class time. Sometimes if you have the same class and the kids are in the sport, they miss the class, but with the rotating schedule that kid doesn’t have to miss my class at the end of the day, so that’s pretty nice.
Q. What do you think are the negatives of the new schedule?
A. I lost some minutes with the new schedule so I had to cut out some curriculum.
Q. If you could change the schedule, what would you change it to?
A. I would have Friday be the same as the rest of the week.
Bernie Hernandez ‘24
Q. What are your thoughts on the new schedule?
A. I don’t like how they changed it in the middle of the year, it confuses people and it’s not the best for me.
Q. What do you think are the benefits of the schedule?
A. I have a big break, like a 2-hour chunk in the middle of the day, so I can do a lot of things.
Q. What do you think are the negatives of the new schedule?
A. I don’t like how lunch and community time are grouped together.
Q. If you could change the schedule, what would you change it to?
A. I would probably split lunch and community/flex time back up and change them to last semester’s schedule.
Sebastian Moya ‘25
Q. What are your thoughts on the new schedule?
A. It’s alright, a lot of things can be improved.
Q. What do you think are the benefits of the schedule?
A. I mean if you have a free period last you would have a longer break, but in between break and lunch you have more free time.
Q. What do you think are the negatives of the new schedule?
A. I don’t like how there’s only a 15 minute break.
Q. If you could change the schedule, what would you change it to?
A. I would probably give us a longer break, more than 15 minutes for sure.
Tom Vosganian ’24
Q. What are your thoughts on the new schedule in general?
A. I honestly thought that the previous one was better.
Q. Why was that?
A. Because in the last schedule you had all the classes before, and you would know which classes you would need to go to based on your classes and experiences that day. Also, I think that break is a little too short as compared to the previous schedule.
Q. Any positive about the new schedule?
I like that break is longer on Friday, otherwise the first semester schedule was a better fit for me.
Q. If you could change the schedule, what would you change it to?
A. I would revert it back to last semester.
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There you have it, folks. Overall, opinions regarding the new schedule seem mixed. The new schedule comes with great benefits, like more regularity and a fixed structure, which students and faculty alike can enjoy. But the schedule also comes with certain disadvantages, like having too much idle free time when it’s hard to be productive (this can especially be a problem for students who have two free periods in a row). As we grow more accustomed to this new schedule, we’ll see how things play out.