The 2025-2026 school year at Salida High School saw a transition to a new schedule for all students. In previous years, students followed a block schedule, where they went to the same classes every day for 50 minutes or 110 minutes. Now, students attend four 90-minute classes on Mondays and Wednesdays, and a different set of classes for the same amount of time on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
This schedule change was implemented in hopes that it would improve student performance and allow for continued exposure in certain subjects. Salida High School Assistant Principal Abigail Cooksey explained, “The number one factor was looking at student performance. Students were substantially losing skills when they didn’t have, specifically a math class, for over the course of a semester.” When students only had math classes for one semester, and had the rest of the year to lose that knowledge, it was often more difficult for them to regain those skills. It also benefits students in art, foreign language and band classes to have continuous practice over the course of a year.
The current A-day, B-day schedule allows students to coordinate classes in a way that allows them to take the optimal amount of classes. Cooksey explained, “We had semester-long skinnies, which would have to be matched with another semester-long skinny . . . Then we had year-long skinnies, which would need to be matched again with just skinnies. Then we had semester-long block classes.” With the old schedule, students would have to match up classes with each other in specific ways. “That was really tricky because there might only be three semester-long skinny options during 2B. And if you didn’t like those options, that was a bummer. When we offer all of the classes on the same modality, if you want to take band, you don’t have to match it up with just three options.” Cooksey said. This schedule also aligns better with the Colorado Mountain College class schedule, allowing students to take concurrent enrollment classes while also being able to take classes at the high school on the opposite day.
One of the challenges teachers might face on this new schedule is learning to balance having more students over the course of a week. “Teachers having more students over the course of a week can sometimes feel like more grading,” Cooksey said. Teachers will also have to adjust to teaching a block class twice a week, rather than everyday or for a shorter period of time. Salida High School Junior Violet Juba said, “I think it might get more difficult as the year continues in terms of memorization. For example, in a chemistry class for finals, the stuff that we learn first in the year will be harder to remember as the year goes on.”
There are several possible benefits to this schedule, including a possibility for improved test scores and pushing students to learn new skills. Juba explained that she feels the new schedule feels more open, and enjoys not having the same thing every day. Cooksey said, “I’m curious what happens with test scores and looking at math retention. I also think there’s a lot of benefit in students having these eight classes at one time and learning a little bit of time management skills.”
This new schedule will hopefully allow students to excel academically, improve their test scores, and develop new time-management skills.
