For the 2026-27 school year, McLean’s administration has decided to shift the schedule back to an eight period day, meaning Highlander Time will occur every other day for a full 90-minute block. Red days will consist of periods one, three, five and seven; silver days will be periods two, Highlander Time, six and eight. With this new schedule, both Highlander Time and third period will no longer occur daily.
“I prefer having the Highlander Time and third period every day,” senior Rama Istandar said. “For certain classes, I think it helps a lot to have shorter class periods, but still have that same amount of content because you technically retain more information.”
For students and teachers that were at McLean a few years ago, this new bell schedule will look familiar. However, students who have only experienced the current system do not approve.
“Sometimes, [students] will get classes loaded onto red days. Like all their difficult classes, maybe none of their electives are on red days, and they don’t have [the energy] to get through [those red days],” Istandar said. “It just ends up being a whole lot worse if we don’t have that split schedule [with third period and Highlander Time everyday].”
Currently, Highlander Time is only exactly 31 minutes. As a result, students with a testing center appointment or pass often cannot finish an entire test during that period, especially if they need to retake or make it up. This leads to teachers frequently having to stay after school to administer these tests.
“These changes are being made to increase time for remediation and academic support for students during the Highlander Time block,” director of student services Jenna Jablonski said.
With students now able to retake summative assessments up to 90%, many see the benefit of having a longer Highlander Time because it allows for teachers to provide retakes during that period.
“Make-ups and retakes are a big challenge for teachers, because the testing center gets full, especially during certain times of the year,” English teacher Michael Enos said. “And with the addition of retakes, it’s kind of become more of a scheduling challenge, so the longer Highlander Time might be able to help with that.”
With the current schedule, third period classes are often ahead of other class periods, because they meet everyday. On the other hand, tests are regularly broken up into two days.
“There are sometimes timed writings or things along those lines, which are more than the time that’s in the third period to be able to do it,” Enos said. “[The new schedule] might make some more room for that, so classes have more of the same experiences.”
Ultimately, the school staff aims to ensure that students are able to use Highlander Time in a way that helps them succeed. As of now, it isn’t fully determined how this schedule will look.
“Highlander Time might look different than it has in years past,” Jablonski said. “We’re working with a committee of staff members to explore new ways to utilize the time effectively.”
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