The new academic year brought several new things: teachers, classes and most anticipated, a new schedule.

Manhattan High discussed possible schedule changes throughout all of last year and decided on a modified block schedule. In April, principal Greg Hoyt took the proposal to the Board of Education for them to vote on. The Board voted unanimously in favor of the schedule change.

What, exactly, does a modified block schedule entail? Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays stick to the traditional seven period schedule that we’ve all known for years. On Wednesdays, students go to first hour for 95 minutes, advisory period for 95 minutes and then second and third hours for 95 minutes each. Thursdays have the same longer classes, except students go to fourth through seventh hours and there is no advisory that day.

Advisory is split into two sections: Goal Setting and Move Time. This allows for students to come together with an assigned teacher and plan for the future, discuss bullying within the school and anything else that can better the community. Move Time is just for students to have time to work on homework or catch up on missed lessons.

The Mentor editorial board, which is comprised of juniors and seniors, came together to confer about the new changes and came up with several benefits as well as drawbacks.

Though several faculty members have vocalized their beliefs that advisory will be beneficial to seniors, we don’t necessarily agree. While freshmen, sophomores and even juniors will have the opportunity to bond with their advisors and form a relationship that allows the advisor to give helpful advice on their post-secondary plans, quite a few seniors already have their plan figured out and are beginning to set it in place, or they’re at least prepped to begin making plans. Yes, advisory can help seniors with applying for the FAFSA or other related scholarships, but most of those are only going to happen once this year and aren’t ongoing in our time at MHS.

Editors also discussed the purpose of Move Time if Study Hall is still being offered as a class. Why is it necessary for students to have nearly two and a half hours of almost nothing to do? Is that not a waste of half of a school day?

And then there’s the catastrophical confusion that came with lunches on block days and the lack of confidence in teachers when being asked for specifics. Lunch is always confusing in the beginning of the year anyway, but the different lunches on block schedule days exemplified bewilderment among students.

All in all, The Mentor editorial board acknowledged all possible benefits to the modified block schedule, as well as the uneasiness that comes with any new thing, but didn’t believe it would have quite as many benefits to upperclassmen as originally intended.