The IB schedule has been a sore subject of controversy in past academic years, evolving from concern to the county’s demand for alteration to seemingly an issue of the past. 

Due to the IB schedule’s confusing nature — less confusing to IB students and teachers — it seemed to the county as though the current schedule did not meet the required number of instructional hours. The county gave the school the option to come up with a new schedule, choose an already existing schedule, such as ones employed by other schools in the county, or the county would choose a schedule for the school. Last year’s proposed schedule consisted of more class time and fewer diploma support periods, with the understanding that teachers would allot a certain amount of time for diploma support within their classes. The pushback from the schedule mostly came from students arguing that teachers may not leave time for diploma support.

An important factor in this decision was the IB workload. To stay on top of school work while leaving time for extracurriculars and free time, many IB students utilize DS to finish assignments during school hours.

However, after not hearing any news on the subject for months, Ms. Kaur Barrett confirmed that students should not expect any upcoming changes, saying that “there is no conversation of a new IB schedule or a proposal for a change.”

While a schedule alteration isn’t in the books for the school, students are left wondering what schedule would be the most efficient for students and teachers. Ilene Goddard, a sophomore with a complete block schedule, says she “ I wish history, math, and English class could all remain as block classes”, but she says she’d “like to have her world language every day for a shorter time.” However, Han Nguyen, an IB junior, says he “prefers all block classes because the schedule allows for a longer time for testing and for students to focus more on each subject.”

Ultimately, preferences regarding the school schedule depend on the student, subject, and teacher. No schedule could accommodate all different types of learning, but understanding how a student learns best can drastically affect their academic performance.