What should I know?
Bear Connection schedule? Gone. Office Hours schedule? Gone. Kickin’ It Live schedule? A memory of the past. What’s stepping in to fill their place? Say hello to Gold Period, the brand new alternative handcrafted just for you: the many students of Upper Arlington High School. No longer will you have to remember five schedules in one week; now all five days will be dominated by one singular, simple set of eight periods (and some change).
While the changes to the schedule may seem daunting at first, more things remain the same than different, with a few notable exceptions. First, the three schedules utilized in the 2022/23 school year have been combined into one daily schedule which will be consistent all five days of the week. To do this, a new block was created between second and third period, called Gold Period, where students will eventually have the opportunity to see teachers or do school wide activities. Those activities could include the weekly viewing of Kickin’ It, schoolwide activities like the Panorama Survey or sustained silent reading (SSR), or eventually activities similar to those previously done in Bear Connection.
“At the start we’re just starting with office hours,” Said Matthew Jordan, an Assistant Principal at Upper Arlington and one of the main architects of the new plan. “We’re going to use that time during Gold Period so that we’re not changing the schedule every day.”
While the changes may seem abrupt, plans for a new schedule have been in the works since last November, with department chairs and staff members giving input in order to create the new plan. Jordan listed consistency and student support as major reasons for the change, with staff wanting to eliminate constantly changing schedules and give students more opportunities to reach out if they needed help.
Gold Period will see students remain in their second period class, with the ability to leave to see another teacher dictated by pre-arranged appointments using the E-Hallpass system. Students in a second period forum will be required to remain in that space, barring a pass to see another teacher. While administration will not dictate how many students are going to which class, teachers will be expected to manage passes to accommodate both students in their second period class as well as incoming students.
When asked about future changes, Jordan was optimistic about the tenacity of the new schedule.
“I think that Gold Period provides us a lot of flexibility in the day that I personally feel we could use to keep the schedule and still maybe tweak how Gold Period is used—because it could be used flexibly.”
In addition to Gold Period, one minor change was the addition of an eighth period, changing periods 4A and 4B to periods four and five, another change made in order to increase clarity.
All in all, the many changes to the schedule will see their evaluation as the year goes on, with staff and administration still willing to make changes if necessary. But until then, the community will have some adapting to do to what is hopefully the last in a long series of UAHS bell schedules.