by Brendan Clementz

Block day schedules on Wednesdays and Thursdays have become common habit for students of Bellbrook High School. Block schedule splits the regular eight-period school days into two groups of odd-numbered and even-numbered periods in order to give each period close to an hour and thirty minutes of time. 

 “We moved to eight periods to allow for flexibility of scheduling classes,” said BHS principal David Hann. “Block periods are intended to be used for cooperative projects, labs, experiences, testing, and to dig deeper into subjects and topics that would not be possible in a 45 minute period.” 

Some students find balance in the way that their schedules divide into odds and evens, but not all block days are created equal. “I feel like Wednesdays are easier because I only have three periods,” junior Cameron Reagan said. “I have study hall first period, so I can sleep in.” 

Junior and senior students have the options for late entry and early release, which can lead to varying results on block schedules. Some students may find themselves with a first period and seventh period study hall, for example, which, on Wednesdays, would give them both late entry and early release, making their school day only about 3-4 hours long. 

However, this is a double-edged sword for students, as they may find themselves with much less to do on one day than the other. 

To learn more about how block days affect the way teachers schedule their classwork, Mr. Carreira and Mr. Hann offered their insights.

“It doesn’t have any effect on assignments, but on block days it’s useful for AP US Government, which utilizes the entire block for the free response question parts of tests,” Carreira said. “For AP US Government, I schedule free response questions for tests on block days, which are required for it to work out. I only really need it five times per year, but it’s still helpful. In Sociology, it’s sometimes a problem, because I don’t like to give tests on block days. Inconsistency is probably the biggest challenge I have with the block.” 

“AP courses can benefit from block days for a full test period,” Hann said. “You can get your benchmarks and tests done within that time.” 

For the benefit of block schedules, Hann said, “Our AP scores have gone up, and our SAT scores as well, but whether that’s because of or in spite of block, I don’t know. It allows us to offer a lot more interventions than we could in the past. Support exists because of the staff that’s available to do it because of block, and we have more teachers in study halls, or running labs, and it allows more teachers to help out if people are struggling.”

On the subject of the recently-applied two-hour delay block schedules: “There was a push for consistency among the staff,” Hann said. “So we have block 2-hour delay to keep it consistent when we have a block day on Wednesday and then a 2-hour delay on Thursday. We don’t like to use it. It’s for an emergency situation.” 

Since one day of block and a normal two hour delay schedule would be unequal to the even-numbered period’s class time, two-hour delay block is held in the case that Wednesdays proceed with full block, with the next day as a inclement-weather day, forcing it to be delayed by two hours.