Next year’s schooling will be different than any year following the outbreak of COVID-19. There is a possibility of an A/B schedule, where some students go on one day and some go to school on another day. While this would be easy to implement for schools that have the same classes every day, for schools like Manual with red and white days it could be a difficult transition. An A/B schedule would be a safer way for students to go to school to prevent the spread of the virus, but it’ll take some planning and adjusting. If Manual were to have an A/B schedule, this is how I think it should go.

The school would be later in the day and shortened. High schools would start at 9 a.m. and end at 2 p.m. Classes would be the same, but with shortened blocks. School days would be shortened because it wouldn’t make sense to teach half a class in an hour and a half. It would also be easier for students to wake up later to go to school and a good opportunity to experiment with the idea for schools to start later in the day, a topic highly debated in our school system.

Since Manual is on block scheduling, each group would go to school on two days. Group A would go to school on Mondays and Tuesdays, while group B would go to school on Thursdays and Fridays. Wednesdays would be a free day, especially for teachers who have to teach their subjects twice. There should be a free day because students need to go to school for the same amount of days. Mondays and Thursdays would represent red days while Tuesdays and Fridays would represent white days.

For group A, any at-home assignments could be due either the next week on the day they go back to that class or on Wednesday, which would be a free day for the teacher. For group B, it would be the same, but instead of being due on Wednesday, it would be due on Saturday.

This is just one of many plans JCPS may use as the virus plays out, but as we speculate on the future, a plan like this could make for a smoother transition and maintain the familiar block scheduling for Manual students.