According to District 203’s School Board, a block schedule could be the future of Naperville North High School’s daily operations.
To begin with the changes, the school day would be shorter and start at a later time. According to the proposed schedule, classes at Naperville North would start at 8:20 a.m. rather than the previous start time of 7:45 a.m. Block days would be Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, with Wednesday being an anchor day. Anchor days would look like a current Monday or Friday schedule, with eight 50-minute periods. Since Wednesday is an anchor day, there would be no more late start schedule, so every school day would begin at the same time. Block periods would be 85 minutes and consist of periods second, fourth and sixth or first, third and fifth, depending on whether it’s an even period or odd period day.
Unlike many other students at NNHS, I have experienced a block schedule. I attended Rocky Heights Middle School in Colorado, where we had a two-day block schedule. In contrast, the proposed block schedule for District 203 would have four block days per week. This schedule has received criticism from the Naperville North community. However, I actually enjoyed my experience with this schedule. I had Tuesday and Thursday block days, with Tuesday being all of my even periods and Thursday being all of my odd periods. My lunch was scheduled in the same manner as the new block schedule, with a period during a block day being divided into A, B or C lunch. For me this schedule worked. One of those reasons is that it allowed me to hone in on a specific class to better understand the material. My teachers would also schedule tests during a block period, allowing me more time to take an exam. The block schedule enabled me to work on some innovative projects and be more creative overall. For example, in my math class, my teacher loved fitness, so the one time a week we had a block class period, we would do “Fitness Fun Day,” a tradition that involved us doing push-ups to the song “Thunder” by Imagine Dragons or having a sit-up contest. It made the class more enjoyable, as well as giving our brain a break during learning. My experience in Colorado has made me look forward to this proposed schedule. That doesn’t mean the block is perfect.
We have had our current schedule since the spring of 2022. According to an email sent to NNHS faculty by Principal Jay Wachtel, the Board is now planning to implement the new block schedule in the 2026-2027 school year. Now that the Board has given students and staff more time to prepare, they should consider doing a two-day block, at least as a transition phase – and perhaps permanently. A four-day block schedule is simply too big a change for staff and students.The better option for District 203 would be to utilize a trial run of a two-day block schedule in 2026. This plan could likely be a better option to ease the transition in scheduling. Additionally, I don’t understand the rush to swap schedules, as there are so many niche problems to thoroughly sort out: grading, makeup work, getting teachers to adapt their teaching style to a longer period. A two-day block schedule would likely have fewer problems because it’s a smaller change.
Normally, people become obstinate when major changes happen. I hope that the district will be able to ease people’s minds by adjusting to complaints or slowing down the change even more so students and faculty can adjust better. Either way, our schedule has changed before, and the Naperville North community will be able to survive if it changes again. Hopefully, we’ll be able to not only endure the change, but excel with it.
