Because of COVID-19, changes had to be made in order for FHS to offer in-person schooling. One change made this year is the class schedule. FHS students have three  classes for three weeks. After the set three weeks are up, the students switch to their other 3 classes. Although the new schedule may help slow the spread of COVID-19 among students, the format is not a good idea and will make students stressed.

“It is more stressful,” junior Maty Temrowski said. “Not seeing my teacher for three weeks is not a good plan because it could be the end of the marking period and if I don’t see a certain teacher for three weeks I have no way to fix my grade if I need to. Then I’m just stuck with a bad grade.”

This is a major flaw to the new schedule. If a student needs to fix their grade, it’s up to them to contact their teachers on the weeks they don’t have those classes. Not only that, some teachers may assign more work because of the thought “they only have three classes.” Teachers and students will be busy with other classes already and, with the new increasing workload, it’ll be more difficult to work on other classes during the weeks off.

Some believe that having only three classes will make it easier for the students to get their work done, even though that’s not always the case.

“I want it to be easier for students,” history teacher Brian Murphy said. “I don’t believe that’s the case for all students. It’s harder to keep students on track and caring about their grades when they don’t finish their work in the three weeks I see them.” 

Students aren’t getting all their work done before the scheduled time for certain classes is over, leaving students with a pile of work on top of the new pile they are going to get from their other classes. This new schedule does help keep students safe from COVID-19. 

“We are around fewer people during the day,” freshman Mary Haiss said. “Because we only have three classes instead of six, we are around fewer kids making it so fewer kids have to quarantine if they have to contact trace and there are fewer exposures.” 

While this may be the case, students are forced to leave certain classes for a prolonged period of time in which they may forget the information that was covered, forget about assignments, be overwhelmed with the increasing workload and become stressed trying to work with all their classes, even the ones they don’t have. This is overall bad for the students mental health.