Carlmont students are navigating another abnormal schedule this week due to the district providing a professional development day.
About 72% of weeks at Carlmont are abnormal, meaning that there is at least one day within the week that is a school activity, a minimum day, a day off, or a day with different allotted times than a regularly scheduled week calls for.
“We have one or two normal weeks this semester,” said sophomore Miriam Kurtic. “Next semester, there’s like a seven-week break where there’s no minimum days or three-day weekends, which is hard on student morale.”
Jennifer Lang, the instructional vice principal at Carlmont High School, says that she tries to spread out the abnormal days throughout the year.
To plan the school weeks for Carlmont High School, Lang must first create the year’s schedule. She must consider several factors, including instructional minute requirements, professional development days, and unexpected events.
The state of California requires high schools to have 180 days in a school year, as well as 64,800 instructional minutes in a year. Lang must ensure that the Carlmont schedule meets the required time standards before it is sent to the state for approval and subsequently reviewed by the district office.
After the schedule is approved, the Sequoia Union High School District (SUHSD) adds professional development days that apply to all the high schools under its jurisdiction. The district has decided to make professional development days minimum days instead of making them full days off, as full days would take away from the 180-day requirement by the state of California for the school year.
Professional development days cover important issues, such as how to support students who are struggling academically or experiencing homelessness, according to Lang.
This Thursday is one of these professional development days, which created a minimum day in addition to a schedule change on Tuesday.
Lang also builds extra instructional minutes into the schedule, which ensures that students will not have to make up days if unexpected closures occur at the school. One example of an unexpected closure is the incident in which a water main broke near Carlmont on Nov. 21.
These decisions on how to craft the schedule have a significant impact on students.
“It gives me more time to do the work I need to do,” Kurtic said. “When you have a day off, you can hang out with your friends, you can catch up on homework, and you can sleep more.”
Kurtic further explained that she feels like the breaks make it easier to go to school. At the same time, these abnormal days can sometimes change the whole structure of the week for students.
Lang acknowledged that the differing schedules can be confusing for students, especially since only 27% of the weeks are normal. She says that there used to be even more abnormal weeks, and she continues to try to minimize them.
“I like having minimum days, but it is confusing,” said Sana Tanaka, a freshman at Carlmont.
