There's a new schedule next year at FHS. It fixes the one glaring problem of the current schedule: bus students will now have the opportunity to take seven classes.
That just about covers the advantages. Now the disadvantages: This year's schedule's other main flaw was the overwhelming sizes of study hall for students in the 33-minute break between block periods and the normal schedule. The new schedule supposedly fixes that, doing away with those pesky block periods altogether. In the present overcrowded study halls, there are an unmanageable 84 and 116 students.
According to the guidance office, the new schedule already has 1,208 students signed into study halls over seven periods in the first semester alone - with more signing up every day. Basic math tells us that with an average of 172 students per study hall, each study hall could become almost twice the behemoth that exists today.
That, my friends, is a problem.
Next, to make the schedule work, classes are "merging." The guidance office can neither find room for students within existing classes,e nor can the school afford to hire new teachers to teach them.
Instead, two Math I classes with 17 students apiece will become a "megaclass" of 34 students. While guidance can't schedule a class with more than 30 students, the hope is that students will drop out of those classes and just go to another class. Classrooms with 30 students crammed in them next year will be the norm, not the exception.
Increased class sizes will make for harder classes to teach for the teachers and a tougher environment for learning for students.
In addition, no one seems to know where those extra four students per class who drop will end up.
So the current schedule's problems are merely amplified. More classes will be overcrowded, and many students will be expected to drop classes - all so bus students can take seven classes. What benefits bus students may, in the end, bring FHS's reputation as a first-rate institution down a notch.
Quality of education is important. When the new administration realizes the negative effects of this schedule, perhaps it will be changed.
Until then, have a good study hall.