With the new school year came a different schedule for Wednesdays and Thursdays due to the addition of block days. The new hybrid schedule has brought a new order of class periods going from periods one, three, seven, five on Wednesdays and periods two, four, eight, six on Thursdays. This causes a problem for students who have no classes in fourth and eighth period, resulting in a huge gap of unstructured time in the middle of their day.

Senior Ryan Lynde is one of many who are affected by the new block days. He, like many students, has a huge gap of time in the middle of his day due to not having class fourth and eighth periods because of lunch and early release.

“9:45 a.m. to 2:02 p.m. I have no classes and I’m stuck in the school for the middle of the day,” Lynde said.

He talks about how he felt when the block schedule first started and how his mind has since changed.

“At first I was looking at it with an open mind of having lots of time to get work done, but now it’s just turned into lots of wasted time and just not being productive,” Lynde said.

Lynde’s feelings go deeper than just the block schedule and says that attending school at all is a struggle.

“It makes me dread the day because it feels like it takes so long and when I don’t have any work to do, it feels wasted,” Lynde said.

Mother Heidi Willer has a son who attends DGS. Like Lynde, her son senior Luke Willer has a gap from 9:45 a.m. to 2:02 p.m.

“This is a waste of his day, and it’s not going to be beneficial to his education,” Willer said.

She said that consistency is important in her son’s learning and life. Living with a routine helps him in every aspect of life.

“I don’t quite understand why you can’t just have consistent days with each class,” Willer said.

While many kids dislike having a gap from 9:45 a.m. to 2:02 p.m., there are some students whose days end at 11:43 a.m. and they enjoy having a large gap because they can go home and not have to worry about the rest of the day.

The way that these students’ schedules are set up is a sixth period lunch and eighth period release, so their day is over after the first two blocks.

Senior Shane Hosty is one of the students that has a large gap at the end of the day.

“Having no eighth and sixth though is great because I can come outside and run, and I don’t have to go to class all sweaty,” Hosty said.

Lynde proposes a possible solution to the problem in his schedule for the coming years.

“If you have everyone who has eighth period off to have sixth period lunch, I think that would be a perfect solution,” Lynde said.