By Rajan Saha, Staff Reporter
Last year, the Tredyffrin/Easttown school board approved a new mixed-model schedule that Conestoga implemented at the beginning of the 2024-25 school year. Students and teachers follow an alternating “Garnet” and “Gray” five-day schedule instead of the previous six-day cycle. Wednesdays and Thursdays consist of four block classes and a one-hour “Lunch and Learn” period for the whole school.
The school board reviews the schedule for the upcoming school year each March, and this year, it intends to maintain the current schedule. Eleventh grade assistant principal Dr. Matthew Sterenczak said that the layout of the Program of Studies is an important factor in the decision to keep the schedule unchanged.
“When we did the schedule change going into this year, you get rid of the six-day cycle. Your points to credit courses became 0.25 credit courses,
so no changes were made from that degree because we already have (the credits) laid out,” Sterenczak said. “I don’t anticipate any changes, but if there was something coming down the line, it would be more complex than just saying, ‘We’re gonna do this now,’ because we have our courses lined up under the new schedule.”
Students and staff have expressed mixed opinions about the mixed-model schedule. Advanced Placement Physics C: Mechanics teacher John Kim expressed concerns about the growing workload for students who miss block days.
“I’ve noticed students who are stressed out because they miss a block day, and it’s hard to catch up when you miss two days (worth of material), and when they’re taking six AP classes or five AP classes, it becomes overloaded and really difficult to catch up on (schoolwork),” Kim said.
Others believe the mixed-block schedule offer benefits, such as the new Lunch and Learn period. Senior Joaquin Orellana Herrera feels that the Lunch and Learn period allows for more flexibility and opportunities than the previous six-day cycle schedule.
“You can meet with teachers much more easily,” Orellana Herrera said. “I run a couple of clubs, and we’ve seen a lot more people when we do a Lunch and Learn meeting versus an afterschool meeting. I think it helps with the involvement of the student body a lot.”
School administration received feedback from the teacher and student surveys sent out on March 7 and 14, respectively. In the future, administration may refine the schedule if needed based on feedback given.
“We always want the schedule to be beneficial for students and staff. That’s why we (created the mixed-model schedule),” Sterenczak said. “If 70% of the staff came back and gave very pointed feedback about a specific thing we could change, and people said, ‘Hey, do this.’ We want to see that, we want to hear that, take that feedback, listening to the different concerns and make adjustments accordingly.”
Rajan Saha can be reached at [email protected].
