St. Luke’s Head of School Dr. Carter along with Director of Studies Mr. Yavenditti recently announced a major change to the school schedule for the 2026-2027 academic year. In an email to students and parents, they detailed a couple of the many changes and the goals behind them.
Students will immediately notice that school will start earlier and end later. Both Upper and Middle schoolers will both be starting class at 8:45 a.m., with Upper school students ending at 3:10, and Middle school students ending at 3:00. This means a 25 minute increase in school time in the Upper school day and a 15 minute increase for Middle school. While this may seem minor at first glance, the added time reflects a much broader restructuring of how the school day is organized.
The most noticeable change is the shift to a six-day rotating scheduling. For the past 8 years, SLS has followed a 10 day, Week 1-Week 2 schedule. Now, students will cycle through Days 1-6, with classes labeled A-G. This system eliminates the “Z period”, which took place first thing in the morning, meeting 3 times a week. Each class will meet four times per rotation, instead of being tied to specific days of the week.
This shift also helps solve a problem students and faculty alike have experienced. Certain days, like Mondays, tend to get disrupted more frequently by holidays, conferences, and other events. Mr Yavenditti explained, “Mondays get hit a ton, whether it’s President’s Day, whether it’s fall break.” With the new rotation, missed days no longer consistently affect the same classes. On top of that, this helps students who are frequently late in the mornings or have early dismissals for sports, as they will not continue to miss the same period. As Mr. Yavenditti put it, “What this rotation does is it tries to make it (the schedule) a little bit more democratic.”
Beyond the rotation, administration has reworked the structure of the schedule itself. Clubs and Extra Help periods, which previously ran every day except Wednesday from 10:20 to 11:10, have been consolidated into Compass, Clubs, and Help time from 2:10 to 3:05 on Days 1 and 4. Notably, the Compass program is now integrated into this time, creating a single, dedicated time for students to work 1 on 1 with their compass coaches.
A new 30-minute “Meeting Time” replaces the 15-minute slots previously used for Advisory, Town Meeting, Class Meeting, and Meditations. The extension in this time creates a buffer, eliminating rushed announcements and giving students a set space to connect and reflect within the school day.
Of course, not all of these changes came without trade offs. Starting earlier and shortening lunch by 15 minutes was necessary to create more instructional and meeting time. Mr. Yavenditti acknowledged that some decisions were about priorities, balancing what would most benefit students academically while still considering the overall experience. Specifically, when asked about how the changes would impact the senior privilege of leaving campus for lunch, Mr. Yavenditti states “We did not create a schedule based on Press Burger.” Despite that, he urges students to stay open minded about the schedule.
Overall, the new schedule represents a balance between flexibility and structure. Shorter lunches, consolidated activity blocks and longer daily meeting times are all designed to maximize instructional time while supporting student well-being. With this new schedule, SLS students will have the capacity to experience and participate in more clubs and activities without sacrificing crucial extra-help time with teachers and advisors. Hopefully, as the community adjusts, the positive impacts of these changes will be felt by the entire campus.
