High school officials announce schedule changes

May 13, 2019

Dartmouth High School students will soon have less homework and longer class times due to changes to the school’s scheduling system.

In September 2018, the school ditched the former block scheduling system, which divided school days into four 86-minute blocks a day, to a period system with seven 50-minute periods instead.

After gathering student and faculty feedback throughout the school year, and evaluating priorities and goals, Principal Ross Thibault announced what officials are calling the “Seven Plus Personalization” schedule.

Under the new system, students will still take seven classes at a time. However, each day will only include five classes instead of seven. Each period will be longer as well, up to 62 minutes instead of 50.

The changes are in response to student and staff concerns about the pacing of the school day on the new schedule, managing homework for seven classes a day, and the impact shortening the length of scheduled classes from 86 to 50 minutes had on instruction and learning.

“We really felt like we could make some tweaks and changes in the current schedule that would allow us to address some of these challenges,” Thibault said.

The new schedule will also feature a new “personalization period.” It will give students flexibility in enriching their own education, receive extra support, or see specific teachers for help.

Student assemblies will be conducted in the coming weeks to educate students about the changes. Students on IEPs will also need to have the IEPs amended to reflect the changes.