BHS Shifts to “8 Drop 2” Schedule: More Classes, Shorter Periods

By Aziley Crespo

Branford High School is introducing a new “8 drop 2” schedule for next school year, increasing the number of student classes per day but shortening each period to about 60 minutes. 

School officials said the new schedule will provide new and better learning for students. Some students have signed a petition against the change.

Under the new “schedule “8 drop 2” schedule, there are still eight periods in each student schedule, but only six will meet each day. The other two are “dropped” on a rotating basis. Over a four-day cycle, each of the eight classes will meet three times. As a result, classes will be shorter by about 20 minutes.

On some weeks classes will meet four times and on alternating weeks classes will meet three times.

Another feature of the new schedule is to keep HIVE consistent on Tuesdays and Thursdays which would be two times a week, as compared to this school year when there is a HIVE period four days a week. There will be two different bell schedules, one with HIVE and one without.

“It was a combination of surveys we gave last year,” said Principal Lee Panagoulias, who announced the change earlier this month. “Conversations that we had with department teachers and with our leadership team. Right now within a week students meet with their teachers three times in a week, this increases it to four.”

Students have many questions about what the schedule brings. Junior Jake Hood has started a petition to stop the schedule with over 200 signatures from students at BHS. 

“There are many reasons why we don’t want it,” Hood said. “Like the increase of homework stress, students who have extracurriculars after school have more stress and shorter classes with no breaks.”

According to Panagoulias, the revised 8-drop-2 schedule will provide numerous benefits for our students. In a letter he sent to parents, he identified several different benefits.

● Maximized Learning Time: By right-sizing the length of each period to approximately 60 minutes, we can offer more focused and engaging learning experiences.

● Robust Elective Program: We will maintain our full range of elective offerings, giving students a wide variety of learning experiences

● Increased Teacher-Student Interaction: With this new schedule, students will meet with their teachers more frequently, enhancing their ability to engage with the material and receive personalized support.

● Career Program Pathways: This schedule provides opportunities for students to take courses to explore post-secondary choices and participate in job shadowing, internships, and certification programs

● Maintain Key elements of our Hive Program: Our Hive programs, such as Hive Choice, Live, and Community, will continue to emphasize student choice, celebrate student achievement, and bring our BHS community together.

After several years of discussing possible new schedules, Branford High implemened the current block schedule for the 2020-21 school year to accommodate the COVID hybrid schedule. Before that, BHS ran a 1-8 schedule with every class meeting every day for about 45 minutes. Similar to the schedule change approximately four years ago, BHS had to better the learning and education of students, Panagoulias said. 

“I remember when we shifted the block schedule that we have right now and there were a lot of people who didn’t necessarily agree that it was the right move,” Panagoulias said. “So I find it interesting now, about four years later there are some people that don’t want to shift away from it.”

While some students do not want to shift to a new schedule due to feeling like their certain classes cant be accommodated in the schedule, longer classes and some students can’t wait to see what it brings.