This year at Friends Select, Natalie Mayer, the Upper School Dean of Academics, along with Steph Demko, the Associate Director of Middle School, worked with the lower school and Ben Cooper, the Director of Operations, to modify the previous schedule for the 2025-2026 school year to address the extra walking time that it will take to get to and from the new building.

For the 2025-2026 school year, Natalie and Chris Singler, the Upper School Director, decided to make several changes to the schedule, including a much longer passing time – 5-minute increase – but a shorter lunch period – 10-minute decrease. The new schedule has the school day beginning and ending at the same time, with classes being the same length as well.

According to Natalie, the schedule changes were intended to help students and teachers arrive at class on time and prepare their materials more easily. Natalie said, “The biggest complaint that I received from both teachers and students was that there wasn’t enough time getting from class to class, especially from the STEAM building to the Parkway building. There wasn’t breathing room. There wasn’t time to ask teachers questions, and it felt a little bit rushed. We wanted there to be that space in schedules where students could feel in community and a little more relaxed.”

Some students feel that the new schedule is a significant improvement over the previous year. When asked about how he felt about the new schedule, Bode Wild ‘26 said, “The longer passing time makes it much easier to get to class on time. I feel like I have been much less late this year.”

While some students enjoy the new schedule, others feel that this year was a step in the opposite direction. Francisco Sarmiento ‘28 expressed his concerns about the new schedule, saying, “Personally, I dislike it. Ten minutes is a bit unnecessary, and I don’t really need ten minutes to get to my next class. I normally find myself waiting outside for the teacher to start class, and considering that takes time out of lunch, it’s not worth it. I find that lunch is noticeably shorter…I don’t really like it.”

Although not every student feels entirely confident in the schedule, Natalie feels that the schedule changes have so far proved successful. “We are seeing what we were hoping for,” Natalie says. “Students are able to hang out and talk to each other. The other day, I had two freshmen approach me in my office, and they said, ‘We have a class that starts in ten minutes, and we can’t go to the class yet, so we thought we would sit here.’ Over a chat, I got the chance to get to know them a bit. It was really nice.”