The new bell schedule has mixed reviews among students and teachers. photo by Merry Shukert
Taking a deep dive into the new schedule that left the TJ community with questions and concerns as the year kicked off to a start.
For the 2023-2024 school year, the schedule changed in different ways. Many students and teachers of the Thomas Jefferson community have shared their opinions surrounding the new schedule, but what are the reasons for the change? Several factors went into the decision to introduce the new schedule, including the amount of minutes required for students to be in school, recommendations for teen health, and accommodations to the growing population of students at tj.
Principal Mike Christoff was instrumental in implementing the schedule change for the 2023-24 school year. “DPS needed to find a way to get consistent school-provided transportation to students all throughout the district.” said Christoff, explaining that the previous start times created challenges that the DPS bus system was unable to accommodate.
The second main reason for the schedule change was the Healthy School Start Time Initiative. The initiative surrounds the idea that teens’ brains don’t begin unwinding until much later at night than adults or young children. A later start time for students means that they will be able to get more sleep and go to bed at a biologically normal time. Another reason for the schedule change was Advisement. “There is a state requirement of an hour of social and emotional learning around students each week,” said Christoff. In order to meet those state requirements, the schedule had to be adjusted.
As opposed to last year’s four minute passing period, a five minute passing period was also implemented due to the increase in the number of students causing traffic within the hallways. Having a five minute passing period for students has exponentially decreased tardies for students throughout the day, according to Christoff. The later start is one of the more appreciated things when it comes to the new schedule. Many students have expressed that it is much easier for them to wake up and that they have prolonged energy throughout the day. Junior Ben Scherer explained, “the thing I like the most about the schedule is the extra sleep because it helps me be more productive throughout the day.”
Though many do enjoy the new schedule, there are always others who have worries about the implications. Christoff explained his concerns about inexperienced drivers driving to and from school. Last year, with a 7:30 a.m. start time, there was little to no traffic to and from school. Now, the time it takes to get to and from school is almost doubled due to it being one of the prime times for Denver traffic. Student athletes are also greatly affected – last year, they would only miss their last class period for games. However, this year, athletes are subject to missing up to three of their afternoon classes, leaving them scrambling to catch up on work. The schedule change has also benefited teachers in the way that there is an extra hour before school starts on Wednesday for staff meetings, as it’s more efficient to have meetings in the morning rather than having them after school.
English teacher and basketball coach Herbert Lynch shared his opinion on the new schedule and how it impacts him. He explained “through basketball it is going to be very difficult because we have six basketball teams, three girls’ teams and three boys’ teams, that need to practice every night. If we start at 6 p.m. there is a chance my C teams won’t be practicing until 8 or 9 at night. Which I think would be unfair to students. We are going so late in the evening it is going to affect children’s homework and their home environments.” From the perspective of a teacher/coach there are clearly several impacts on the student athletes. The new schedule does not only affect students but also the teacher coaches putting in 12 hour days.
The basis for the change being this school year instead of last year was because a couple of schools within the DPS school district began starting about an hour later than normal in order to test out the possibility of a new schedule. Realizing that the schedule came with more pros than cons, DPS decided to finally implement the change in hours for all schools under its purview and thus, the new schedule was born.
