The Waterfall Schedule

Many students and staff are just now getting used to the new waterfall schedule. This change in routine has caused much complaining from members of Shrewsbury High, fueling a debate on whether or not the school district should keep it.

We interviewed different students and staff from the school and asked them what they thought about the change in the schedule.

The waterfall schedule was introduced at the beginning of Quarter 2; it was created so there would be a fourth lunch to deal with the capacity issues in the school. In the waterfall schedule, people go through “cycles” in which the start times of their classes differ, depending on which day it is. Additionally, each day there is a long period, in which students have a class for 85 minutes, with lunch sometime before, after, or during the long block. However, these lunches pose a problem with students looking to socialize with their friends. As of now, each day students have to find new friends to sit with at lunch. This could be more of a problem with kids who have a smaller friend group. On the other hand, this could provide the opportunity for students to make more friends. For these reasons, the waterfall schedule is seen as a negative thing, but there could be a silver lining to this dark cloud, according to some students at SHS.

Since there is a diverse population of students at the Shrewsbury High School, there are also many different points of view and opinions that have been identified about the new waterfall schedule released in November 2022. Therefore, there is no definitive answer to the debate about whether the waterfall schedule is right or wrong. However, a good amount of people can seem to agree on certain aspects that they prefer or dislike about the waterfall schedule.

The waterfall schedule gives a variety of schedules for every person, since the class orders are different every day. This keeps things from getting “boring by being the same thing all the time,” according to Niyanthri Vijayshankar from the class of 2026. Therefore, people who work more efficiently at certain times of the day have the opportunity to work at their golden time to produce higher quality work for every class, not just one. On the other hand, the fact that classes are not officially set at certain times of the day can also create complications.

Those Friday mornings where you realized you forgot to do your homework for one of your classes cannot happen too much anymore. Now you have that class 1st period in the morning, so you do not have time to quickly get it done during lunch or your study. “I don’t have those lunch periods before the same classes, so it’s a little bit stressful,” says a 9th grade student.

Speaking of lunch, lunch periods can be hit or miss. First of all, the waterfall schedule cuts down the amount of time people can have for lunch by a small amount compared to the old drop schedule. This is because there are now 4 lunches instead of 3. However, this also means that there is a smaller number of people at each lunch ,which makes it “less hectic,” and easier to navigate, says Sreegouri Vangala from the class of 2026. However, the long block can be overwhelming for some students, making it hard for them to focus. On top of that, the days where students have 4th lunch can be “extremely exhausting,” says a student, because people will be focusing more on their hunger throughout their long block rather than paying attention to what they should be learning.

When people do get to their lunch period, some people may be able to find new friends to sit with right away to keep them company, whereas others may have days where they cannot spot a familiar face. This may cause anxiety and stress to some people, especially as the school is still taking time to adjust to the new schedule. However, that is not the only stress people face from this waterfall schedule. Some people may have days where they have a difficult class first period. Therefore, a student from the class of 2026 leaves the suggestion to have “something like meditation mornings, where we can relax and mentally ready ourselves for the rest of the day,” before the school day actually starts. The waterfall schedule has many pros and cons, but it has impacted people in significantly different ways, so there is no telling whether the waterfall schedule will be one to last at SHS. Do you like the waterfall schedule?