Students roam the halls after being released from class 10 minutes early. Others rush at breakneck speeds from building to building to get to class on time. Confusion floats through campus, many bewildered by the alternating blocks or class lengths. Despite confusion, students and staff have worked to accommodate the pilot schedule put in place for the 2025-26 school year.
In May, a Problem Resolution System complaint was filed with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which prompted an investigation that revealed the high school was 56 hours short of the state’s requirement for structured learning time. Because of this shortage, administrators were tasked with changing the existing schedule to create one that meets the state requirements.
On Monday, June 23, the pilot schedule for the 2025-26 school year was released to staff, students and families. Some key changes included three 57-minute classes and one 65-minute class per week for each block (a 16-minute increase per week), a five-minute passing period (instead of the previous seven-minute passing period) and alternating X and T-blocks every five-day week.
The pilot schedule was specifically designed for this school year while staff develop another, more permanent schedule that adheres to the state-mandated number of structured learning hours, according to multiple administrators. Midway through the first quarter, students and staff have felt the impact of this new schedule and are finding new, creative methods to adjust.
Pros and cons
The new schedule features differences in class length, passing period length and block variety, all of which have required staff and students to adapt.
“I find it really confusing. Especially with the four-day weeks and how there’s a lot of flip-flopping between T and X and between which blocks happen when. It’s just very inconsistent,” said senior Bayla Dollinger.
Assistant Head of School Hal Mason said that although the different class lengths throughout the day can be confusing, the new schedule is still successful because it accounts for the required number of structured instruction hours. He said he is glad that the schedule allows for all blocks to have their first meeting before any class meets for the second time that week.This allows teachers to maintain consistency in their lessons.
“The pro [of the schedule] is that we’re compliant with what the state needs us to do,” Mason said. “The pro is that we were able to do it and retain the basic structure of the calendar that we had for the last few years, which we like. We retained the same block order. We retained the idea.”
Alternating T and X-blocks on five-day weeks
One of the major concerns about the new schedule is the reduced number of X-blocks and T-blocks. X-block is a time during which clubs and student bodies such as Legislature meet, and T-block is a time for advisory hubs to meet. With the new schedule, T-block and X-block alternate on five-day weeks and both occur on four-day weeks.
Queer Student Program (QSP) adviser and social studies teacher Kathryn Leslie said that this reduced number of T-blocks is especially unfavorable for affinity advisories because a loss of community comes with the loss of continuity.
“It’s just really hard to continue to develop the friendships and the relationships [in the QSP] or to even feel like I’m doing the support work that I want to do with that new crew of students. I want them to see me as a person that they can come to, and say, ‘Hey, I have this schedule issue,’ and I can point them in the right direction, or, ‘Hey, I’m having this social issue in this one class,’ and I can point them in the right direction,” Leslie said. “But to not even see them that second week of school means that I no longer am the person who’s front and center as a trusted adult.”
Leslie said that the new schedule will also inevitably impact clubs and student groups because of the reduced number of X-block meetings.
“It’s certainly going to have an effect on the relationships within the club. You just don’t build something as deep when you see each other so infrequently,” Leslie said.
Student Legislature, which meets during X-block, will also be affected, according to senior and Legislature member Daisy Huang. She said that the reduced number of X-blocks means that members of Legislature will have to find more time outside of school to work on bills, which may make their work more difficult.
“Sometimes we meet on Zoom, but I just feel like everything is more productive in person, and that is going to be a lot harder when we’re not sitting in the circle and working together,” Huang said. “And also because [X-block] is a time when everyone is free and all the teachers are free, that’s when you cut out that time to work. And it’s hard because during teacher collaboration time, teachers have to help other students, so having [X-block] was really important.”
Leslie said she saw how the special schedules affected membership to the Gender-Sexuality Alliance during the years affected by the construction of 22 Tappan, during which freshmen attended classes at Old Lincoln School, and during the COVID pandemic.
“During COVID, we had fewer ninth graders join GSA because we were partly remote and we were partly online […] And when we had a divided campus and ninth graders couldn’t get over here as easily, we had less membership from that ninth grade class. But then that stayed true all the way through their graduation. And that class just never had as much membership or as much involvement with the GSA,” Leslie said. “So what makes me sad is that there will be long-lasting effects of having clubs meet less often.”
Junior and Asian Pacific American Club leader Jeremy Wang said despite the drawbacks related to the reduced number of X-blocks, there are silver linings to the current schedule as well.
“Last year we were talking about it [and] originally I thought that fewer X-blocks is definitely bad, but now I’m thinking that fewer X-blocks might mean you can have bigger, better X-blocks where we can plan more and have bigger events,” Wang said. “I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily better to have fewer X-blocks, but there are definitely ways to work around it and compromise.”
Leslie said that the QSP has plans to continue their traditional community bonding events outside of school, such as apple picking, pumpkin painting and a fall retreat to the Berkshires, to find ways to build strong relationships despite the decreased X-block meetings this year. However, there are drawbacks to meeting in this way.
“So I think part of what we’re going to do is really lean into social events that happen outside of club time, that are on the weekends or on Friday afternoons. [We are going] to try to build community outside of club time and outside of advisory time,” Leslie said. “And that’s great. It’s just tricky because students have other commitments, so you can’t get everyone.”
Creating a new schedule
Administrators stress that the schedule for the 2025-26 school year is temporary and they are already thinking about what the new, more permanent schedule could look like.
Dean of Student Support Brian Poon said that a new schedule could result in many structural changes, such as using a seven-day rotating schedule or changing the length and number of meetings per week for each class.
Mason said that one new feature that may be added for the 2026-27 school year would be “structured intervention blocks” where students could receive extra help during the school day.
“I think [intervention blocks are] the most likely thing that we would change. It may be that we don’t change anything, but we do have to continue to meet what the state has said we need to do, and there may need to be some changes with the teachers’ contract in order to make some of that possible. But that’s not clear yet because we don’t know where we’re going to land,” Mason said.
The schedule could also build in features that allow students to manage their stress levels and workloads, which is an important aspect to consider, according to Poon.
“I have always been in favor of classes that meet for longer amounts of time, fewer times a week, because that is a structural intervention to [the] amount of homework students have on a given night […] But it’s at a cost for other things. As we consider our schedule, I think I want to be guided by what’s best for students,” Poon said.
Leslie said that collaboration will be key to ensuring the new schedule is one that serves everyone.
“I think that students are really going to advocate to make sure that as we create a new schedule for next year, we figure out how to ensure that X-block happens every week and that advisory happens every week, so that this doesn’t become a permanent schedule, because I really don’t think it’s workable for students,” Leslie said. “[We need to] make sure that students are advocates for ensuring that the next year’s schedule really has these issues in mind and resolves these issues.”
