At the start of the 2017 school year, Loyola Academy switched to a modified block schedule. Prior to this change, each class met every day. During that time, every other Wednesday the school followed the late start schedule. This meant that the school day began at 9 am, approximately an hour later than usual. The late start time provided each department and grade level team time to meet in order to discuss curriculum and subject planning, which was beneficial to these groups.

However, with these benefits came some drawbacks. Mrs. Bonner, who worked in the dean’s office at the time, says that “students commuting for a 9 o’clock start hit more traffic” and “more students were late” on the late arrival days.  Mrs. Bonner now works as the Assistant Principal for Student Services. 

Within Loyola’s new schedule, each department has a common free period that is dedicated to department-wide meetings. This change has been getting good feedback from teachers because of the “higher quality meeting time” that happens more often, says Mrs. Bonner. Because of this, the late arrival days have been eliminated.

Loyola’s main focus in creating the new schedule was to benefit the well being of the student body. The school specifically looked at the amount of homework students were given on a daily basis, making sure students had enough time to balance their needs.

Mrs. Bonner sat in on the decision board while Loyola was in the process of switching to the modified block schedule. Because Loyola is aware that a 7:45 start time is very early, the board had thought about permanently moving the school day to begin around 8 am. However, “students who took public transportation would still have to leave at the same time every morning” due to the train or bus schedule times, says Mrs. Bonner. This change did not occur for that reason.

Seventy Loyola students were recently interviewed and gave their opinions on late starts.  Each one of those students were in favor of bringing them back; however, Mrs. Bonner says that there is no longer a need for late starts because “as an institution, all the needs are being met” within the RAMBLE cycle schedule. In addition, when switching to the new schedule, classes lost instructional minutes overall.  Knowing the importance of every minute of class time, Loyola’s RAMBLE cycle is beneficial to both students and staff, expresses Mrs. Bonner.