In an email to parents on March 9, Head of School Larry Van Meter provided a link detailing key changes and statistics pertaining to the rationale for them.
The email confirms that school will start at 8:00am next year, 5 minutes earlier than the current start time. The school anticipates no difficulty in making arrangements for transportation for students who ride buses.
The most significant changes will affect the Upper School. Three new courses – a Quaker Beliefs and Values for freshmen, a Leadership course for sophomores, and a class on world religions for juniors who have not yet met the school’s religion requirement – will be required and will meet every other day for a semester. Regarding the sophomore leadership course, Van Meter wrote in his email that, “Building on pilot offerings I taught in 2014 and 2015, this course will focus on experiential skills-acquisition, including making speeches, leading diverse teams, and working effectively with a range of personalities.”
Major changes to the current advisor schedule are in the works, so students can receive “more in-depth support” from their advisors. The advisor period itself will be modified, with the current 20-minute mid-morning break shortened to 10-minutes. More changes to the advisor block may be introduced, though no more details have yet been made public. The new advisor schedule will make more time to be devoted to arts classes, which have historically been constrained by scheduling.
Middle School students can expect to see similar changes to the advisor blocks, as well as increased time in religion/Quaker values and technology courses, which will incorporate the new lower school coding program.
Van Meter notes that more details regarding the new schedule will be released in upcoming weeks.
