The MCCSC school board has temporarily suspended the schedule change. What now?

While many students are relieved, a significant number of underclassmen remain worried about the potential for a schedule change during their junior or senior years. Sophomore Daphne Southern said she’s “worried that [she] won’t have much time to complete work or learn as much.” Administration initially intended for the change to commence during the 2024/25 school year, though have officially voted to suspend the decision until Fall 2025. The vote occurred the week after Friday, October 20th– the date Bloomington South parents and teachers received an email from the MCCSC central administration regarding official confirmation of the long-speculated high school schedule change.

If the controversial decision is confirmed in 2025, Bloomington public high schools will operate within a hybrid/block semester schedule, with eight classes both semesters. Each day, students will attend four classes, then attend four separate classes the next day. For example, a student may attend algebra, US history, English, and stained glass one day, and attend French, Chemistry, computer science, and study hall the next day. This is the basis of a ‘block’ system. 

Many students firmly disagree with the district’s decision to potentially implement a schedule change. Southern shared further concerns about the schedule change, “I personally think that we should keep our schedule because we have been doing great throughout the years [with our trimester schedule],” Southern said, “we have done perfectly fine, even with North and South’s schedules being different.”

Sophomore Meredith Lavender, a transfer from Edgewood High School, also expressed discontent with the potential change, “[Edgewood] had [the block] schedule and a lot of people felt stressed and had limited opportunities. Whenever I transferred here, I had a lot more opportunities to do the things that I wanted.”

Additionally, sophomore Savannah Burns talked about her appreciation for panther plus time, which is currently in jeopardy due to the schedule change. “Personally, I love Panther Plus. I understand some kids skip it and don’t actually use it so I think they could also change it for the opportunity to benefit the kids who want to use Panther Plus,” Burns said,  “I like to have a free period when I [usually] don’t have any work to do. If I have work to do, I get it done and it benefits my grade.”

Although current upperclassmen are unaffected by the newly introduced schedule system, freshmen and sophomores may experience the effects of change in 2025.