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New half day causes schedule challenges for the school

Luke Kirtley ’15 and Price Zimmer ‘14 | Staff Writers

With Thanksgiving break just around the corner, students often expect a half day, but Wednesday’s half day is a fairly unusual one. Instead of South’s average seven period, 19-minute half day, students will only attend their first three hours for 55 minutes.

The school will then hold another half day on Wednesday, Dec. 5 where students will attend periods four through seven.

Photo by: Mikey Sullivan ’13 | Photo Editor. Students and staff must adjust to the half-day schedule changes recently made by the administration. Students will only report to first through third hour tomorrow.

“I’ll be perfectly honest, half days aren’t good for students educationally,” said Dr. Outlaw. “At the end of the day, it all comes down to how you use the time.”

Teachers oppose the three-class half day because it puts them on two separate schedules. The only way to deal with the double lessons is to either “waste” the half day not teaching the next lesson or rush the other hours.

“I try to keep everything in one section, but [because of the new half day policy] I have to break up my lesson plan,” said English teacher Sandra McCue. “It adds complexity to the process.”

“I think we’ve tried it before and haven’t liked it as a staff,” said science teacher Annie Dalby. “I think it throws off teachers and students.”

The 19-minute period half day wasn’t as inefficient as everyone might have thought, math teacher Ryan Wheaton said.

“It isn’t perfect, but (the old system) keeps everyone on the same page … twenty minutes is not a lot of time, but I am on the same page with all my students,” said Wheaton.

Regardless, both systems are fundamentally inefficient, said Outlaw. The best solution to the half day problem would be to eliminate them altogether, he said.

“If it was up to me, I would have no half days,” said Outlaw. “The more instruction the better.”

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