Concerns surface over earlier start time of new schedule

Since the school’s switch to a rolling block schedule for next fall, some parents and students have voiced concerns about the 8:15 start time and a shorter lunch period.

One potential issue with the earlier start time is increased traffic in the mornings, since the high school will have the same start time as Redwood Middle School.

“I’ve put some calls into our local government to talk about what we can do as far as traffic goes [and] what some things to be looking out for are,” principal Paul Robinson said.

In addition to fears about the traffic, having the same start time may cause drop-off problems for parents who have children at both schools. However, Robinson said that the library will be open for students who need to be dropped off earlier and that the school will make sure these students are taken care of.

For many students, the biggest concern over the new schedule is the 35-minute lunch period, a 5-minute reduction. Since the majority of upperclassmen who leave campus for lunch usually return with only a couple minutes to spare, the shortened lunch period poses potential safety problems with speeding, some parents and students say.

But to accommodate a 40-minute lunch in the new schedule, five minutes would either have to be tacked on to the beginning of the day or to the end, so that no instructional time would be lost, Robinson said.

“There’s certainly desire from a lot of [students] to have the 40-minute lunch,” Robinson said. “If there’s going to be any change [back to the 40-minute lunch], that’s something we can maybe do down the road.”

Another concern revolves around the scheduling of teacher collaboration, which currently occurs on Wednesday mornings from 7:50 a.m. to 8:50 a.m. However, with the new schedule, there will no longer be an hour set aside on any one morning for the weekly collaborations.

Robinson said that the solution being discussed now is to have the collaboration sometimes during the “empty” period, the eighth period on even block days after second, fourth and sixth period. Although the specific day for or frequency of collaboration has not yet been decided, Robinson said the school intends to schedule it after school because arriving at 7:15 a.m., an hour before school, is not realistic for many teachers, some of whom live as far away as San Francisco and Gilroy.

Another activity that has taken place on Wednesday mornings during collaboration is the Music Education with Saratoga High (MESH) program. This program gives students the opportunity to mentor elementary and middle school musicians during their Wednesday morning rehearsals at schools such as Redwood and Argonaut. Since Saratoga High currently starts later than the elementary and middle schools, the mentors are able to work with the younger students and then head to school with plenty of time to spare before class begins.

However, with a daily 8:15 start time, the high schoolers will not have an adequate amount of time to work with their students before they have to depart for Saratoga High.

“If the new schedule happens to be enforced, mentors will probably have to leave 10 to 20 minutes earlier in order to make it to school on time,” said senior Alice He, who is one of the program’s directors.

With this new schedule, the only idea that has been brought up is to have rehearsals outside of school, but this option is difficult for all of the participants since many are busy with other extracurriculars and academics.

Although the new start time and reduced lunch period may create some issues, the new schedule is moving forward.

“There may be some changes on our end [although] I can’t predict them right now, [but] we’re trying to keep [the schedule] consistent with what Los Gatos is doing as much as possible,” Robinson said.