The mix of missed school days and multiple delays have teachers rushing to teach students all of the required content. After expressing their concerns, principal Cynthia Prieto set out to make up snow days without adding days to the year or cutting into spring break.

“I did some research and I have some experience with [the new schedule]. I met with all of the faculty on March 11,” Prieto said.

A major concern with schedule changes is how it will affect MTC, Governors School, late arrival, early release, and field experience kids.

“When I went into those meetings, I had a Plan A, a Plan B, and a Plan C. We tweaked some of it based on what we need,” Prieto said.

On Mondays and Tuesdays, the extra block is not between first and second block-it is after all lunches(first and second lunches are not switched) and before fourth block. On Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, the extra block is between first and second block, and lunches are switched.

Many teachers had some apprehension, as Prieto expected.

“Hearing each others ideas helped, like “Oh, yeah, I can do that,” and “That’s a good idea.” I think that some were like “Oh, I don’t like this.” I told them to please email me. I had about 11 emails, and a couple said “I can do this. Whatever you need, just let me know. Show me what it looks like and i’ll do it”. I had others saying, “This will be hard. What about this with my situation?”, so I have tried to respond to each of those individually. I have had others say, “Let’s try it and see what happens. I’ll complain later,” Prieto said.

World History teacher Wesley Livick is ready to get started.

“A big reason that we are doing it is because we are trying to make more times that we see kids-research shows that that helps. If I can get more contact with a student, I can teach them a little bit more,” Livick said.

Teachers will have to plan 4 extra lessons each week to accommodate the new schedule.

“It’s not just going to be like giving quizzes or me lecturing-it’s going to be review games and such. After next week, we are going to start slowly doing review for the SOL, but we are going to do it in a fun way,” Livick said.

The new schedule is set to last until SOL testing starts.

“It’s going to add a bit more in our plate, but nothing that the teachers can’t handle,” Livick said.