Since Robert Lehman first started teaching chemistry at McCallum—in 1968—he has taught under many different bell schedules.

Based on his experience, he has reached a conclusion about the current A/B schedule, a schedule that fixes Mondays and Wednesdays as A days, Tuesdays and Thursdays as B days and alternates each Friday between A and B days. The first period on Mondays and Wednesdays is almost 15 minutes longer than it is on other days.

“As long I’ve been teaching, about 58 years,” Lehman said, “this is the worst schedule I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Assistant principal Gabriel Reyes said that AISD established the schedule in order to enable the student sharing program, in which students take morning classes on other campuses that aren’t offered on their home campus.

“All high schools had to get along as far as the calendar,” Reyes said. “We all had to follow the same calendar so that we could facilitate the kids, as they move from school to school, with the same schedule.”

The schedule had to be standardized so that all campuses had the same classes at the same time. And first period needed to be longer in order to allow for transportation between campuses.

The Shield contacted associate superintendent Thyrun Hurst, at the Office of High Schools, to get the district’s perspective on the new schedule. Hurst agreed to be interviewed, but by press time, he had not yet granted that interview.

Reyes said that approximately 10 McCallum students are participating in the student sharing program. Reyes said that more students might have participated if they knew that the option was available.

“I think it’s a good system in that it allows kids to go take these classes,” Reyes said. “As we go more and more, I think more and more kids will take advantage of these opportunities, like the Austin High sign language [class].”

Reyes said that more McCallum students would have taken the sign language class, but rising enrollment on the Austin High campus reduced the number of slots available to students from other campuses.

Reyes also said that the fixed A/B schedule helps students taking ACC classes as well.

“Another one of the benefits is that our students who are taking ACC classes can now take not only one, but two classes because it would not mess up their schedule, because it is set,” Reyes said. “We aligned all of our schedules, so we could facilitate that.”

While the program has given some McCallum students the opportunity to take a class they couldn’t take otherwise, teachers and students say the new alternating Friday schedule has made it difficult for A and B classes to stay on the same schedule. That change plus the addition of 22 minutes, compared to last year, has caused students to be in classes for very different amounts of time.

History teacher Joe Carcione said, “The new schedule has affected how I do Fridays because I try to keep both classes even, but when they end up doubled up, I flip which class I lead with, from A to B day.”

With the alternative Fridays, B days are double blocked on Thursdays and Fridays every other week.

The added time to first period has caused a change in the bell schedule for A and B days. Some students find this very confusing and hard to remember when their classes get out. Students and teachers say that the inconsistency of the schedule has been a challenge.

“Everyone knows that consistency is the best thing for young people, and this schedule is highly inconsistent,” science teacher Richard Whisennand said. “For some of the students, it’s not a big deal, but for a lot of the students, especially those who are easily distracted, it’s horrible.”

The new schedule is also causing unintended consequences for some groups at McCallum. The Blue Brigade, for example, has suffered bad luck with the alternating Friday schedule. Last year, the Friday after every Thursday football game was an A day. Because Blue Brigade is first period, members of the team got to sleep in the next day.

This year, however, after an 18-hour Taco Shack Thursday, Blue Brigade did get to sleep in because the Friday after Taco Shack was a B day. The Lehman game on Thursday night was also followed by a B-day Friday.

“This schedule change has been very confusing,” Blue Brigade member Lilly Ponce said. “Now that Fridays switch alternatively between A and B days, Blue Brigade does not get to sleep in after a very long day.”

But the students in Blue Brigade aren’t the only ones that are blue because of the new schedule.

“I feel that we’ve made an adjustment for a few select programs, that’s had an impact on all of the students,” Whisennand said, “and I don’t know if that’s best for education.”