As of the 2023-24 school year, NYC Museum School has officially implemented a new period into every student’s schedule. Initially, the school’s schedule was separated into seven rather than the normalized eight periods, each now lasting forty-five minutes, meant to break up periods and benefit teachers. 

The NYC Department of Education had already agreed upon eight forty-five-minute periods. However, Museum School had not yet adopted this plan and kept its original seven- period day until the teachers’ union signed a contract with the eight-period day at the start of this year.

There are now a few daily changes in each student’s schedule, with the majority of the “confusing” changes, as stated by multiple sophomores, being the separation of lunch periods amongst the grades and new periods for the sophomore class known as “global study skills,” “English,” and others. For the lunch periods, freshman and junior students now eat together during the fourth period, while sophomores and seniors share the fifth period for their lunches. 

Some students, such as junior Aoife Moriarty, preferred having the same lunch period for every grade. Moriarty said, “The hallways could get a little crowded, but kids who have friends in grades that they are closer in age to can’t see them at lunch anymore.” 

Specifically for the school’s sophomore class, a new period that has core class names has been added to their schedules. For example, a student might have had a core class such as Algebra II, and the following class is named Algebra. Some classes are utilized for completing homework, while others, such as “study skills,” are meant to teach students how to study productively. 

Sophomore Sadie Stoller explained that she liked the idea of using these new classes as study hall periods to complete assignments. However, Stoller stated, “7th period can sometimes get in the way of completing the work that we need to do. For instance, some teachers assign additional work during 7th period, which prevents us from getting our important work done.”

10th grade history teacher Ms. Edgington said that she preferred the seven-period day due to it allowing her students to “start an activity and finish it without carrying into the next day.” 

This school year’s implementation of a new period has caused some controversy among students and teachers. The main issues stem from new lunch schedules and courses added for sophomores. The question brought on by these changes is: Was this 8-period-day change worth it?