Hello,

My name is Luyao Yang. I am a student at Wayzata High School. Our school (and district) is known for academic and athletic excellence. Due to a lack of funding, we have made several budget-cuts through the past few years. This year, the school board is considering the idea to change our classes from a 4-block schedule that changes each term (for some classes) to an 8-period alternating schedule that lasts the whole year.

While on the outside this may seem perfectly fine, some reasons why this will negatively impact the students is lesser amount of classes taken in a year, confusing(and higher) workload for all students, as well as a confusing schedule, and lower-quality education. 

Because we are going on an alternating period-schedule, doubling-up is no longer available for most classes. Math classes, for example, are currently semester-long. But because we’re going to be alternating, math is now year long, which makes it so the students cannot take two consecutive math classes in a year. And for classes like AP Calculus AB and BC, student achievement will decrease, as it is very likely most students will forget most of what they learned in AB because of the year that splits them apart.

This also reduces the amount of learning. We normally graduate with 64 credits completed in our 4-year high school. But due to this schedule, we are removing 4 classes and graduate instead with 56 credits. Not only will this reduce the amount of useful knowledge we could gain from high school, but it will also reduce college preparedness because of it. The school board is doing this to save money, and they are using this “alternating schedule” to cover it up.

Having an alternating schedule will also force upon students to do more of the learning at home. Because you are learning less from the teacher at school, you will have to do more of the learning at home, which means more homework(as if high schoolers don’t have enough already). As an AP European History student, this would be very annoying because we already have 20+ pages of reading a night + notes. Now imagine balancing that with other classes + the many clubs that are offered to our students. There is absolutely no way any person will show up to class remembering what they learned the day before in other classes, and then what they learned in their homework, and not only that, but also what they learned in the lecture from TWO DAYS AGO. Now imagine repeating that for the other set of classes you are taking.

Forget about the high workload that is going to be forced upon students. Imagine the incoming freshman. For context, our high school is big(61,100 meters^2, with 4 floors). Even without the new schedule, freshmen are still getting lost even in the 3rd week of school! Many still probably don’t even know how to read their schedules! Now imagine combining that with an alternating schedule, and how confused they are going to be. It is already chaotic enough in the hallways, which are the scariest part in the school during passing time.

This is crucial to the academic and well-being of us students. According to niche.com, our high school is the #1 public high school in the state. We are known for our academic excellence. At least 50% of our students take at least 1 AP class and pass the AP test. We have a 97% graduation rate, one of the highest in the state. We also have an 84% reading proficiency rate, and a 77% math proficiency rate, also one of the highest in the state. Our athletics is also top-notch. We won the 2022-2023 MaxPreps cup, the third public school in the nation to do so, with 2,303 points last year. We have won 6 championships last year, which led to us winning the national title “Best All-Around High School Sports Program” from MaxPreps.

We also have a student enrollment of more than 3,500 students, with a minority enrollment of nearly 38%, and a 1:1 female-male ratio.

But this will not last. If our district does decide to change schedules, our school will fall in the rankings. More than 3,500 students will be affected with a lower quality of education and high school experience. High school is meant to be something that when you look back upon it, you can say, “This was something I enjoyed being a part of”. With this new schedule change, being happy is certainly not something that will come to mind when students look back upon their high school experiences.

And we need your help. Our school board currently thinks that the students would love this new schedule change. And they are deciding soon. My class took a class vote, and every person agreed, on their own accord, that they wanted to keep the old schedule. By signing this petition, you are helping us preserve our academic and athletic merit. Our school motto is “Excellence. For each and every student”. I am humbly asking you to help us to continue to uphold this belief.