This year, Jackson Prep’s junior high will be transitioning from the six-period day to the new rotating schedule as adopted by the senior high last year.
The senior high schedule will also be receiving several minor adjustments.

Following these changes, all students will be operating under essentially the same schedule. The only major difference be- tween the two will be the place- ment of the 3rd carrier and the lunch period. The junior high will eat lunch while the senior high will be in their third carrier, and vice versa.

By having the entire school on similar schedules, adminis- trators hope to make it easier to provide classes attended by both junior high and senior high students.

Head of School Mr. Lawrence Coco said, “After the success of moving the Senior High to the rotating schedule last year, we are excited that our Junior High will be following suit and implementing a similar schedule. This schedule provides additional opportunities for our Junior High students to take additional classes in foreign language, art, drama, band, technology, as well as a host of other enrichment electives.”

A universal schedule will also make planning school-wide assemblies and events a cleaner process.

Both junior high and senior high students will attend a first and second carrier, then will have a 20 minute block—directed study for junior high, activity period for senior high.

The junior high’s directed study will be directly followed by a 40 minute lunch period. 3rd carrier will follow lunch. In the senior high, the order of these two blocks is reversed with 3rd carrier preceding lunch.

After lunch/3rd carrier, the junior high and senior high schedules converge with another 20 minute activity period. This period is followed by the 4th and fixed carriers. All carriers will last for 1 hour and ten minutes with the exception of the fixed carrier which runs slightly shorter at 48 minutes.

The junior high will now enjoy the benefits of a rotating schedule, including the fixed carrier. Junior high counselor Ms. Reta Haire said that this inclusion of fixed carrier has allowed Prep to offer a new “Freshman Seminar” which she hopes “will be a valuable tool for the ninth graders and will give them important information they will need as they begin their high school career.”

The 2019-2020 school year also marks the second year of Jackson Prep’s current advisory program which places students in small groups with a faculty member who will act as an advisor. This year advisory groups will meet twice a week rather than once as they did last year.

Both junior and senior high students will meet in their advisory groups on Monday and Wednesday, junior high during the morning directed study block from 10:34 to 10:51 and the senior high during the afternoon activity period following lunch from 12:49 to 1:06.

-John Henry Andress also contributed to this story