Switching to Trimesters

Switching to Trimesters

This change to trimesters was a decision made by the staff and was decided through a vote. The switch to trimesters is happening so that it can better help students and because staff has also wanted to change the schedule for a while. They are using this change as a way to fix the schedule layout and the names of classes. This way, classes will become more clear to understand for students’ forecasting and for other schools and colleges.

There will be five classes during a normal day, with each class being 70 minutes long. Each class will still offer half a credit and students will be able to make 7 and a half credits a year. There will be two lunches with the time for each remaining the same. Each trimester will have five classes with each trimester being 12 weeks in length, meaning students will have 15 total periods throughout the year. In spite of this, some periods will remain the same throughout the year, as they will be year long classes.

Classes that will remain a year long are AP classes, Choir, Band, and Technical Theater. Normal electives will be a trimester long, and core classes will be 2 trimesters long. Staff are still figuring out how finals are going to work, but they have said that there is possibly going to be a final after each trimester. All of this however, is still being decided. A zero period will still be offered to students.

Though the change to trimesters was made by the staff, it still has left some with concerned thoughts. Kellie McCarty, the theater and technologies teacher, has said that even though the changes may offer more time for teaching and for students to work, she believes that it will interfere with the amount of classes that will be available to students during the day. She believes that due to the schedule change and the fewer amount of periods, students who choose year long classes such as Choir, Band, AP classes, or Technical Theater will be limited to only choosing one or two of these for a school year since taking more would mean that they wouldn’t be able to explore other classes. However some teachers think the change is just going to have a positive effect, one teacher who believes this is Elias Nolde, who is an English teacher. Nolde has said that the change will provide more time to teach and will help lessons progress smoother. Nolde has also stated that he looks forward to the students having more opportunities and less classes during the day.

Students feel that the change to trimesters doesn’t really impact them and that it will be a help in exploring new classes or getting a half credit more than usual.