A new schedule for the 2021-2022 school year has just been announced. Many students feel strongly about how this new schedule will negatively impact their freedoms, particularly rising juniors and seniors, as they will not have the same opportunities that the previous upperclassmen were able to have. 

With only ONE “Lion/Tiger” block a week (a replacement to J Blocks), this new schedule limits the number of clubs that students can participate in and lead. Many students at South are part of multiple clubs, and this schedule will force them to choose between their extracurricular activities. Additionally, with this new schedule, elective blocks will meet even less than they did this year, which will be detrimental to many students' interests.

The proposed WIN blocks, which stands for “what I need,” force students to stay in an assigned room during what would otherwise be a free block. Students should be able to use this time to attend to their own needs instead of being told what they need by the administration. It also takes away the usual open campus freedom that upperclassmen are supposed to receive. One way that this issue can be solved is by allowing students to use the WIN blocks as flex blocks/free blocks, while also offering activities such as yoga, sewing, and cake decorating for those who feel that it would be beneficial to them. 

The start time is unnecessarily late and does not give students enough time after school for extracurricular activities as well as completing all of their homework. For students who play sports at South, they will have to miss almost entire blocks just to attend their games. The point of the late start time is to allow students to get more sleep, but really, students will end up staying up later to get all of their work done.

Lastly, many students at Newton South feel that this schedule will not attend to their needs. On the NSHS Denebola’s Instagram page, we received comments such as:

“Class of ‘22 went through a year of COVID school only to have our senior privileges be taken away by WIN block.”
“I honestly don’t understand why this schedule was made, unnecessary.”
“Can we protest this? I’m not trying to be locked in a room for “win” block”
“In the most disrespectful way, what is this schedule??? So seniors can’t have their own schedule we have to do something for this stupid win block - Nah this is worse than starting at 7:40.”
“Did the people making this not realize we were gonna leave school when it’s dark out for like 4 months straight?”
“Did administration talk to a SINGLE student before they made this? Literally, who does this benefit?”
“This schedule makes me happy my son graduated in 2019.”

If you believe that the new announced schedule for the 2021-2022 school year should be changed, join us and sign this petition.

This petition was made by rising juniors, Lia Merkowitz, Leah Blum, Caroline Blum, Emily Schwartz, Arshia Verma, Sammy McClintock, and Zoe Eisen.