The careful balance of school and sports becomes complicated when student athletes miss class for events, and now the new block schedule is changing the effects of missed class time.
Athletic director Michelle Wood said that factors like lights, warm-up time and available facilities all weigh into scheduling sporting events. Depending on the sport, athletes typically get pulled early one to three times each week.
“I hate getting kids out of class, but sometimes it’s unavoidable,” Wood said. “We have to start our games at 4 p.m.. When we’re in daylight savings time, we don’t have enough time because it gets dark so early.”
Rhys Lockamy, a junior who runs cross country and track, has mentioned that because the teachers are behind on class time due to the block schedule, he feels like he’s missing more than last year.
“My fourth period… it’s not the easiest class,” Lockamy said. “My teacher spoke to me about trying to get his class switched out of last period because he doesn’t want me to miss it, but with scheduling, it didn’t work out…. So I get behind.”
Yara Sinnott, a senior who also runs year-round, has talked about the difficulty of missing her current fourth period, a biomed class that’s heavy in group work, and how it affects her and some of her classmates.
“You’re working with a group of three people every day on a new part of your mission,” Sinnott said. “And so when you miss class for a day, it’s a lot of extra work for your partners to make up for you not being there.”
Some athletes, however, are more optimistic about the effects of the block schedule on the class they miss. Esha Kamath, a senior who plays softball, hopes that only missing half of class will be beneficial.
“I think the block would be helpful in this scenario to be able to catch up on what you missed, or at least get a preview for what you will miss in the beginning of class before you have to leave,” she said.
Sophomore golfer Isabella Shen has maintained a relatively neutral perspective, saying that the difficulties of missing class typically depend on your last period.
“It has made it a little more difficult,” Shen said. “It made it a little more difficult last year too, when I was missing more than one class”
Maria Cash teaches Calculus and Precalculus, and she said that some parts of math are easier if you see and hear the explanation, which makes things difficult if you missed the original lesson. She’s also noticed a challenge with the semester-long classes.
“Their entire season is during almost our entire class. In the past it was like, okay, so a couple of months and then they were able to pick up,” Cash said. “They’re also right now trying to get used to the fast pace… I think for them it might be a little worse.”