For the past few weeks at AHS, rumors have been circulating about the changing schedule.

“Are there really no passing periods?” “I heard there aren’t any.” “I heard there are.” “Are there really seven classes a day?” “I heard there are eight, but you could be right.” The conversations in the halls are filled with words of uncertainty.

Currently, there isn’t a new schedule, but there will be one implemented next year because the schedule needs to meet IB minutes, fix blocking issues, and be designed in a way that students do not have as much time out of class.

However as of right now, what is known are the issues that must be resolved with the new schedule.

First off, the current schedule doesn’t fulfill the required International Baccalaureate (IB) minutes, i.e. the amount of time students spend in a classroom with a teacher.

Principal Tharyn Mulberry said that the IB classes are supposed to be hitting 490 minutes of instruction every two weeks, and currently they are falling short at only 430 minutes every two weeks.     

Going into further depth on the issue, junior Jordana Rothberg, a student who attended one of the first meetings in which the administration explained some of the current schedule issues, explains her take on the lacking IB minutes.

“IB kids weren’t getting enough hours, so it was unfair to us IB kids that were taking the same test as the rest of the world, but not getting enough hours to prepare for it,” Rothberg said.

Along with IB minute requirements, there are blocking issues with the current schedule. The 90 minute classes are effective for the majority of subjects, but a new schedule would be very beneficial for math and world languages.

Overall, Mulberry says this is just an issue with frequency. One of the goals is to be sure that the classes meet with the frequency to promote learning. And this is where the math every day comes in as an issue.

“We want to make sure that we have math every day and we want to make sure that it’s not having to be scheduled for two blocks,” Mulberry said. “And also world language would like to have class everyday. On the other hand, other teachers would rather have the long class every other day.”

Part of this conflict is the fact that there are departments that would prefer the shorter classes every other day, but there are also departments that prefer the block schedule with long classes every other day. For example, Mulberry said that the science department prefers the longer classes due to the fact that it gives them the ability to perform a longer science experiments.

Overall, the problem lies within the fact that the current schedule can not provide the varying needs for the different departments.

Lastly, the other main reason for a schedule change was students having unscheduled time.

At the meeting Rothberg attended, the administration brought this issue up.

“They said that kids weren’t in class enough,” Rothberg said. “They were having too many free periods.”

In a student’s four years at AHS, there are a total of 32 credits they can take, but to graduate only 24 credits are required.

“We want to make sure we utilize the day better so we get kids into some classes,” Mulberry said.

And this leads to the biggest problem of all: class sizes.

Mulberry said that due to the issue of unscheduled time in a student’s schedule there are classes, electives especially, with very few students.

“I have elective teachers that don’t have any kids in their classes,” Mulberry said.

In an article published by The Aspen Times, this issue was brought up by Aspen School District curriculum director Brian Childress, whom they interviewed.

In the article, author, Erica Robbie wrote, “Childress said the biggest issue with the school’s current schedule is that it creates too many conflicts, which consequently leads to disproportionately sized classes…some classes have five students while others have more than 30, Childress said.”

Although it is uncertain what next year’s schedule will be, it is certain that it will be different from what the AHS community has grown accustomed to, for these issues in the schedule will need to be fixed.