For the first time in history, CHS has decided to implement a block schedule for this year. Because of this, it has affected everyone within the school, whether it be students, teachers, or staff. Prior to school opening, CHS had been shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic and starting this year some changes have been made to the agenda.

In the past, Wednesday was typically a late start day, however, as of the 2021-2022 school year, Monday has been changed to be the new date. The newly introduced block schedule days are Tuesday and Wednesday; and the block schedules change which classes you have during each day. Tuesdays have periods one, two, and six and Wednesdays have periods three, four, and five. Finally, Thursday and Fridays are now the only two days with a regular bell schedule. Unfortunately, these changes have not been as beneficial to all students, especially student athletes.

Considering that, all practices and games for sports this season are now officially in person; begs the question— how are these new changes affecting athletes? Matthew Kuo, a sophomore at CHS playing for the Frosh/Soph football team, is one of the many athletes this season experiencing the conflicts of sports practice along with school.

“I don’t really have a lot of time after school to do homework because of sports practice being 3 hours,” Kuo said. “It’s easier for me to focus when the classes aren’t extremely long.”.

With sports training and practices having a duration of 3 hours long, students athletes’ grades could potentially be harmed as balancing the two is quite a difficult task. As sports overlap with class times because of away games, students have to leave class early and as a result are missing half of their class time because of the 2 hour block schedule.

Block schedules are making it harder for students to concentrate because of how long the overall duration of the class is; with two hours of sitting in a cramped chair staring at a whiteboard it’s not all that surprising why most students are against block schedules. For student athletes, their energy for practices and games are thus drained as they have been sitting inside of a classroom for two hours.

Kyle Chen is a current sophomore who is planning to try out for the tennis team during springtime.

“It’s harder to get a ride during this because it’s not consistent since my schedule changes day to day,” says Chen.

Although there’s various cons about this new schedule including the draining two hour periods, inconsistency, and there are some positives to this situation as a whole.
One of the benefits to the new schedule is extra downtime. In addition to the passing periods and 40 minute lunchtime that students have to relax before the next class, student athletes now have extra downtime between their last class and sports practice.

“I have a zero to five period schedule so it ends shorter on some days like Tuesday’s. Last year’s practice was at 5:30 so I have a 5 hour gap to go home before I go to practice,” Chen said.

The downtime between a student’s last class of the day and their sports practice certainly gives students the benefit of going home and unwinding before going through three hours of nonstop training. In addition, this long downtime can make time for doing homework, eating before going to practice, or just relaxing after classes.

From what it seems, this new schedule is affecting students in a negative way from the long classes to inconsistencies throughout the week; however, there are also upsides to the new schedule. While the sports season is just starting, athletes are already feeling the impact of the new schedule, and most student athletes are experiencing the negative effects of the schedule changes. Having just come back from an entire year of online school and zoom, the changes could prove to later be beneficial and possibly be deemed as an improvement from last year’s schedules.