Unless you have spent the last few weeks walking through the halls in a daze, you have probably noticed the change from eight periods to seven periods in the daily schedule for the 2014 – 2015 year.

The last time that Cotter had seven period days in place was the 2009-2010 school year, when the current seniors were just mere seventh graders, and the current junior high kids barely had dreams of Cotter dancing through their head.

Though Sr. Judy Schaefer and former principal Mr. Uribe put most of this plan into action, new Cotter principal Mr. Forney has been working on making this a smooth transition  since inheriting his new duties.

“We have had seven period days previously at Cotter, but it has been a few years since we switched over to the eight period days,” states Mr. Forney. “There were many reasons that the switch made sense this year. It started out by having the right combination of size, the number of retiring teachers, demographics were changing, and this helped to schedule more efficiently.”

One group that this change seemed to have a very positive impact on would be the members of the counseling office. After speaking with Mr. Stevenson, one of the new members to the counseling office, it seems to be that there have actually been fewer schedule changes this year than in years past.

“This reduced number of changes  is, at least in part, due to the 7 period day; in short, the schedule is ‘tighter’ or ‘more rigid’ on a 7 period day, meaning there is less freedom to move between sections/classes, so fewer schedule changes–even if they did meet all the other requirements–were actually possible when factoring in the courses students are required to take,” Stevenson commented.

The real challenge for the counseling department  this year became “the aforementioned rigidity of the schedule and the faculty having to get used to having less prep time for their classes,” Stevenson said.

Cotter uses a modified block schedule with seven 50 minute periods on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays, and 4 period blocks on Wednesdays and Thursdays.  On block days there is homeroom time and an extra period for assemblies and activities meetings on Thursdays.

For the most part,  the move seems to be going smoothly, though of course there have been bumps in the road.

“There were a few down sides with the seven period days, such as lost opportunities, and more conflicts in the creation of schedules,” Mr. Forney said.

For students, there are pros and cons to the new format.  Many students have one fewer class to focus on and keep track of and the extra time in each period makes the day feel less rushed.  On the other hand, they may not be able to take a class they want or may have to choose between electives more carefully.

Students aren’t the only ones affected by this transition though, the teachers also had to make many changes to their teaching plans as well. Mr. Peters, Cotter band teacher, was one of the teachers that was drastically affected by change to seven period days.

“Switching to a seven  period day affected the band classes dramatically.  Last year we had 94 students in band in the high school.  This year we have 77.” Though he states it did not affect his personal schedule, the numbers show how much it made an impact on class size.

The administration says it will review the change as the year goes on, until then the seven period day is firmly in place at Cotter.