Glen Rock High School will be testing out the new schedule for next year on Tuesday, May 27th.

There will be three hour blocks in the morning that will rotate throughout the four days that follow. After the three hour-long blocks, periods five through nine will continue as normal. The purpose of this new “demo day” is to spot any problems with the schedule before a similar version is run officially for the 2014-2015 school year.

In an email to the faculty on May 2nd, Principal John Arlotta asked staff members to be communicative about any concerns in the schedule.

One of those concerns is about unevenly missing classes in the event of school cancellations, but it is addressed in the schedule’s stipulations.

On the schedule for next year the administration has specifically incorporated a “reserved day” during the month of November.  According to Mr. McCrary, who is a representative for the Glen Rock Education Association, “If we have a snow day, [a] reserved day is to make up a day in return.”

Mr. McCrary further stated that, during lunch next year, it will be difficult to find places for all the students to eat. Mr. Arlotta’s current plan is to open the cafeteria, gymnasium, and courtyard for underclassmen. But problems may still arise during a rainy day or the Grad Ball season: where will all of the students eat?

“It is a possibility that clubs will meet during lunch and maybe even AP study sessions hosted by the teacher,” stated Mr. McCrary. “Part of the problem is that juniors can’t go out for lunch due to our contract with Pomptonian, as we promise them a certain amount of bodies in the school.”

This contract will still be in effect during the 2014-2015 school year.

The Glen Rock student body has mixed feelings about the new schedule and demo day.

Luke Teresi (’17) explained, “I do like it because I think it’s good that the school is finally changing its schedule after a few years, and this allows us to test it out.”

But the changes are not as popular among other students.

“I personally think it will disrupt the day itself,” said Marc Bernstein (16). He specifically had issue with the impending demo days, saying that “people will learn better if we save the new schedule for next year.”

Sophomore Liam Geduldig told The Glen Echo, “I think [the demo day] is unnecessary because I don’t think that a block schedule is a hard concept to grasp. And we don’t need to go a whole day practicing it.”

The kinks of the new schedule next year are still, however, unknown.

“[The administration] just wanted to get a schedule started and work from there,” Mr. McCrary said.