By mandy hui ‘23
During the past two years at St. Mark’s, there have been drastic changes to the academic schedule, confusing many students as they attempt to navigate through the school year under unprecedented circumstances. Due to the sudden transition from in-person learning to remote learning due to Covid-19, St. Mark’s tried their best to adjust the regular academic day schedule to a more comfortable schedule that would fit well with the majority of the students. Altering the schedule was challenging as many students were situated in various countries, since the school has a large international student population, making it difficult to allocate a good time for classes to begin and end for everybody. To this day, there are still ongoing changes to the schedule, especially during lunch, as fitting the entire school into the dining hall simultaneously would not be Covid-friendly.
After the first spring break of the 2019-2020 academic year, St. Mark’s announced that they would host all classes remotely, completely remodeling the school life and routine of all St. Markers. Instead of having classes end at around 3 pm, the school shortened the school day so it would end at around noon. This allowed international students to rest, especially if they were in a location that was more than 10 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. In addition to that, the school cancelled Saturday classes entirely. When the 2020-2021 school year began, St. Mark's then announced that they would return to in-person learning. However, remote learning was still an option, so they created a hybrid learning schedule. The school lengthened the academic day from the previous year, ending it at around 1:30 pm, but if you were an international student with a class past 11 pm, you would be exempt, and the class would be optional. Classes were also condensed from the customary 80 minute and 45-minute blocks to only 40-minute blocks, along with 30-minute intervals between each class (which was then 20-minute blocks after the first semester) as it gives the school time to sanitise classrooms and working spaces. Saturday classes still remained cancelled that year. The school also implemented three different lunch blocks (A, B, and C), with each student allotted a particular lunch block every weekday to prevent overcrowding in the dining hall, following Covid regulations.
This academic year, 2021-2022, the school’s academic schedule came back to some normalcy with the return of the infamous 80-minute blocks and Saturday classes. Although school seems like it is back to a somewhat ‘normal’ state, there are still slight changes to the schedule. During the first two weeks of school, St. Mark’s introduced ‘‘extended orientation’’, helping students transition back to school more smoothly with the absence of certain color blocks throughout the week, particularly because of the sudden shift back to a schedule student’s were not accustomed to. Moreover, lunch is still staggered but only into two blocks (A and B) so there would not be too many students eating at once. The constant changes to the schedule have been an exasperating experience for many students. However, St. Markers continue to thrive and work their hardest with the conditions given to them, doing the best they can with what they have.
