Hannah Macron ‘26 and Manasa Mahesh ‘27
The 2025-26 school year brings inevitable change, from faculty to food, to most importantly, the new schedule. Instead of the traditional color blocks, the schedule is now organized in alphabetical order.
The alphabet system itself is easy to recall, with blocks shapeshifting to A through G, but events throughout the day are morphed. Chapel is no longer promptly after breakfast. Now, we are all shepherded into the chapel after one morning class, which, admittedly, has hardly seen such consistently full attendance. School meeting feels rather stilted and formal under the bright lights of the PFAC rather than the partially broken couches of the Center, but again, attendance has never been more thriving (likely in part due to the strict policies implemented on it). Getting rid of the frequently interspersed community blocks and x-blocks throughout the week, Dr. Hills and his staff have decided on the office hours twice a week for a rousing 30 minutes for students to track down teachers or make progress with homework, and a singular club/faculty meeting block at the end of the week.
Nevertheless, the breaks between classes have been extended. The ever-dull passing period between classes, where it normally takes people around five minutes to walk from class to class, has extended to ten. Realistically, it has helped with the omnipresent hunger of St. Mark’s students who are always searching for a way to grab snacks between classes, but it can be irritating when you are not in that position of hunger.
In all honesty, the new schedule is both a pain and more productive to execute in the long term. As a fourth-year student, I occasionally find myself walking to the chapel in the morning to the beat of the retired schedule, but I also can appreciate that these changes will, in all likelihood, make our community more tight-knit and inclusive in all opportunities offered.