Starting next school year, the days might feel longer, but in reality, they won’t be. That’s because the eight-period block schedule is coming back to Big Sky after five years.
The eight period block schedule wont affect the start time or the ending time of school. First period will always start at 8:35 am and 8th period will always end at 3:35 pm. But everyday, students will have four 85-minute classes, not including Thursday, when students will have four 70-minute periods due to the district-wide early out.
While this may make the days feel longer for some students and staff, Big Sky HPS academy science teacher Zach Murphy sees the block schedule as a good opportunity to maximize learning.
“If you have a longer period of time with students, I think that allows me as an educator to give students time to work on material in class, and then I can be there to support them and help as needed,” Murphy said.
He also noted that for students who miss class in the new block schedule, it could mean they have more work to make up.
“The biggest thing I see is that when we have a block schedule, there’s more time in class, that then will probably lead to more material covered, so if you’re missing class, you’re going to miss more material, then leading to more missing work.”
When asked about how academies might be affected by the new schedule, Murphy said, “I think the academies are going to see a very similar effect as any other class. I don’t see it creating too much of a different environment for the academies.”
This isn’t the first time Big Sky has operated in an eight-period block. According to Principal Jennifer Courtney, it was the norm at Big Sky before COVID-19 hit.
She explained that how the schedule works is that there are “blue” weeks and “gold” weeks. During a “blue” week, students will have the same four classes on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and those would be “blue” days. Then Tuesday and Thursday students would have their other four classes, and those would be “gold.”
The next week would be flipped, with “gold” days on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
With the new schedule comes new passing period times, as well. Students will go from having a five-minute passing period up to a 10-minute passing period.
“I think it gives people a little more time to do what they need, like use the restroom, but on the flip side, there’s a lot more time for shenanigans, like substance use and vaping that could go on,” said school resource officer Christian Cameron. “That’s my big concern with the new change.”
According to Molly Wilson, the 2027 graduating class counselor, creating schedules with an added period will actually make scheduling easier.
“We have one more slot to fit things into. Right now classes can get stuck, [but] once the eighth period is added, it will create more flexibility and make it not nearly as bogged down as it is with seven periods,” Wilson said.
For example, Big Sky offers an automotive class that takes place at Sentinel. That class has always been double blocked, meaning students have it for two periods. This is because school officials have to account for driving time to Sentinel, the class itself, and then commuting back to Big Sky.
Wilson says with the new schedule, auto class will continue to be double blocked, allowing students to spend most of their day doing something they love.
“I think that’ll be interesting because essentially you will be spending half your day at the automotive class,” Wilson said about auto staying double blocked. “If you’re a kid who is really into that, I think that’ll be great for them, and that it’s a really great opportunity.”
How students are sorted into classes is all human brain power, Wilson said. When the counselors come into classes to help create students’ schedules for the next year, all the requests are then put into Infinite Campus manually. That tells the counselors the amount of students who are wanting to take certain classes.
After that, everything is filtered into what is called “the wizard,” which loads all the requests and allows the counselors to tweak and make changes until roughly 95% of students are sorted into classes, Wilson said. Then, the counselors can finish up the last 5% of scheduling by hand. They’ll look for small mistakes and make any needed adjustments. Juniors and seniors get seniority over freshman and sophomores in scheduling, Wilson said.
Scheduling roughly 1000 kids isn’t a quick and easy process, even with what Wilson says is a more flexible, eight period schedule. Course requests start at the beginning of February and end towards the end of February. There are multiple meetings looking over numbers for classes where each department looks at making ideal schedules for teachers.
After the meetings, all that info goes to assistant principal Jack Young, who works with the master schedule. The counselors then help and look at what the teachers want to teach at what time.
“It all basically becomes a puzzle that takes until the beginning of May,” said Wilson.
With the switch to an eight-period schedule, students can graduate with 32 credits instead of the current 24 credits, and there’s a lot more time to complete the graduation requirements before senior year. Principal Jennifer Courtney sees this as a positive thing.
“I look at all that as an opportunity for students. It opens up time to take college classes for work-based learning,” Courtney said.
