The high school will consider a new schedule for the 2025-26 school year and will likely adjust its start and end times, according to Head of School Anthony Meyer. The development comes after a state investigation found the school short of a required number of instructional hours.
Meyer sent a draft of a potential weekly schedule to high school faculty on Monday, May 19. Notably, it eliminated X-block from the five-day week schedule and adjusted start and end times to 8:15 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., respectively.
The draft schedule also assigned each block one 65-minute period every week and three 55-minute periods, and changed most passing periods to six minutes.
In the Brookline School Committee (BSC) meeting on Thursday, May 15, Superintendent Dr. Linus Guillory revealed that a community member had, earlier this year, filed a Problem Resolution System (PRS) complaint with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education (DESE) claiming that the high school’s various “Days Of” and its weekly Advisory block did not meet State criteria for “structured learning time.”
DESE asserted that both the “Days Of” (four school-wide days of programming and discussion, including the Day of Racial Reform and Solidarity, Day of Change, Day of Dialogue and Day of Disability Education) and Advisory count toward structured learning time. The PRS complaint, however, prompted an investigation that found the high school to be approximately 56 hours short of the state-mandated 990 hours of structured learning time.
In the meeting, Guillory said neither Z-block nor X-block, which the high school has built into its schedule for the past 15 years, could be counted as structured learning time according to DESE. He said he had charged the high school with creating a revised schedule to submit to DESE by July 11.
“Creating a new schedule will have ramifications on the structure of the bell schedule for the 25-26 school year, the master schedule and the availability of some classes,” Guillory said.
He later added that as the high school was still in the process of planning its new schedule, he wasn’t able to give details on the consequences of scheduling changes on specific course offerings, but that he “know[s] it will have an impact.”
An addition of 20 minutes per day over 180 days would add 56 hours more of structured learning time. Both Guillory and BSC member and former Head of School Bob Weintraub said they expect the school day to begin earlier.
During the BSC meeting, Weintraub said that an 8:00 a.m. start time, if adopted, would make programming Z-block electives— namely, performing arts and conservatory classes—more challenging, especially if they had to be incorporated into the regular A-G block schedule.
In a “Warrior Off-Weekly” email to high school students and families on Sunday, May 18, Meyer announced the scheduling process. “Our new schedule will likely require new start and end times to the school day as well as other changes to help us meet the state mandates,” he wrote.
He also wrote that the 2025-26 schedule would act as a pilot “to determine whether we might make more substantive changes for future school years.”
Meyer established that the school would work with the Brookline Educators Union as it began “…drafting potential schedules that align with our values, adhere to our collective bargaining agreements, and give students more time on learning.”
The message ended with a note of optimism. “While this finding will challenge us,” Meyer wrote, “there are also opportunities for change and improvement.”
