Next year, Delphi Community High School is considering making a switch to an eight period day. The plan is to get rid of homeroom (OT) and give that time slot to a new period.  A few minutes will also be shaved off of the other class periods, excluding first period with the hope of morning announcements, and fifth period due to the lunch schedule. 

The school decided this would be the best way to help our student body considering nearly half of the school population has a grade lower than a ‘C.’ Mr. Shuler, DCHS principal, commented, “I think when we looked at everything and how we could best benefit the majority of the students, this was the best option. It will help everybody. [It adds time for] the kids who need help with interventions and should help keep everyone on track to graduate, it allows the AP kids to take more AP classes.” Another advantage is freeing up a period to take one of the many elective courses offered. 

The new schedule does come with some perceived problems. For instance, without OT clubs will need to find different times to meet. The solution to this is a rotating OT. For example, the first Friday might have first period OT. Then the following week, OT clubs would meet during second period. While this could be looked at as a downside, it will allow clubs to meet for a longer time, or even fit more meetings into a period due to the longer length of the class. 

For those students that use OT for SAT prep, they will still have the option to continue to do so through a guided study or will be encouraged to prepare on their own time by using various programs. Khan Academy has a great program that will allow PSAT scores to be uploaded to give each student questions better fitted towards them. Some English teachers could also use it as part of their classwork or assign it as homework. 

The 8 period day also allows time to fit in learning labs. English and math labs will be offered and will provide students with extra help in those subjects. With the extra period, it will also allow the students to get more individual help from the teacher due to the slightly smaller class sizes. However, this can be a disadvantage as the teacher will have to prepare for and teach an extra class. 

Graduation requirements will likely change as well. It is not set in stone yet, but the Core 40 diploma that currently requires 44 credits could change to 48 and the academic honor and technical honors could change from 48 to 52 credits. This is not unreasonable given the school already has certain required courses such as Graphic Design and Introduction to Agriculture. But this change will only affect the current freshmen and those following. The community service requirement will be met through clubs and guided study as well as sports and other events.