This year, the District 86 school board decided to change the monthly late start Wednesdays to weekly late-start Mondays. Most of the students aren’t fans of the change, but teachers have mixed views on the subject.

Last year with the Wednesday late starts, school didn’t start until 10 a.m., which allowed teachers to have three meetings before school started. The Wednesday late starts weren’t on a regular schedule, whereas the new Monday late-starts are almost every week at 8:50 a.m.. The Monday late-starts only allow teachers to meet for an hour with one team.

“I don’t see one of my teams on a regular basis,” said Mrs. Rebecca Esposito, math teacher. “It’s harder not seeing all of my teams [basically] at all, which wasn’t a problem last year with the late start Wednesdays.”

Some teachers like having frequent meetings, even if it’s only with one team at a time. In addition, the Monday late starts changed the length of classes, making late-start periods 40 minutes instead of last year’s 25 minute late start class periods.

“Late start Wednesdays were always nice [because] you got to have some down time, but classes were shorter and the split periods were always hard to have a lesson plan for,” said Mr. Christopher Wilbur, social studies teacher. “Now I don’t have to figure out how to cram 50 minutes into a 25 minute class period.”

One challenge that teachers are also finding with the new schedule is that it’s harder to meet with students in the mornings and to have early bird classes, because teachers then don’t get enough time for meetings.

“The one drawback I would say is that with only 20 minutes left at the end of meetings, a lot of times it’s difficult, you cannot help kids as much in the mornings because you are scrambling to get everything ready for the day,” Mr. Wilbur said.

But some teachers have found the adjustment easier to implement.

“I think the format that they started with on with the Mondays is much more efficient, it doesn’t disrupt the class flow [like Wednesday late starts],” said Mr. Gawlik, science teacher. “Now with this new schedule it’s much more effective.”

Most teachers agreed that the periods being longer are much more helpful, and having the Mondays being consistent, is overall better than last year.

“Late start Wednesdays were always nice because you got to have some down time and I know that kids don’t like it as much because you didn’t get to sleep in, but…. it’s helpful,” Mr. Wilbur said.