The Middle School campus will undergo a major schedule change for the 2025-26 school year.
Instead of the current six-day cycle, the lower campus will adopt an eight day cycle, with five 55-minute class periods and a 75-minute lunch. Currently, students have nine 40-minute periods, following the same daily order, with one class not meeting once per cycle.
“You’ve got more depth that you can go into in a 55-minute class period than you can in a 40-minute class period,” Wimbish said. “Teachers will be able to bring more variety into their classes, but not to the extreme of the 75-minute class periods at the upper school. So it’s kind of balancing those two things.”
A significant change is the removal of “X” periods, which were free periods when students did not attend a particular class. Instead, the new schedule ensures that even when a class does not meet, students will have another subject in that time slot.
“The biggest disadvantage I’ve identified so far is that we won’t have dedicated ‘X’ periods,” Wimbish said. “In the new schedule, there will be plenty of times when your class won’t meet, but you will have another class instead. So, it’s not like you know that there is dedicated time during a certain block for a class where you’re free and your teachers are free.”
Students currently in seventh and eighth grade will be affected by the change, and reactions have been mixed throughout the lower campus.
Some students express concern about communal lunch periods and losing free periods.
“Because we will all have the same lunch period, everybody will be eating in the commons, and everyone will be in the library at the same time,” Nicole Kim ’30 said. “It will be too crowded.”
“I’m glad I won’t have to experience the new schedule because I like my free periods, and it’s much easier to get through the day when classes are shorter,” Michelle Minikes ’28 said.
However, some students view these same factors as benefits.
“I think the new schedule is good because even if you have no ‘X’ periods, you get an extra day to do homework for another class,” Lauren Bae ‘30 said. “I feel that I will have less stress because there are only five classes each day.”
“Everybody has the same lunch period, so you will always have a friend—unlike now, where all my friends have different lunch periods,” Bae said.
Currently, the break period for the entire middle school campus is 25 minutes. Many clubs and activities meet during this time, bringing together affinity groups or students participating in activities such as crafts or making comics. Next school year, this community time will be extended and the break period will last 45 minutes.
The Board of Trustees decided to reevaluate the current schedule to benefit the community as a whole. The school has been working on creating more balance for the community.
“Thinking about the mental health crisis in adolescence right now, we put that at the forefront,” Wimbish said. “Thinking about what’s good for student well-being, what’s good for the school community, for student belonging—all of those things.”
Some members of the community have expressed that they will miss certain aspects that are not included in the new schedule, such as free periods. However, the new schedule aims to bring students closer together and enhance their educational experience.
“We have a finite amount of time with our students—we have to maximize it and maximize their time with each other,” Wimbish said.
