It’s almost the end of the school year. Masks are gone and one-way hallway traffic is now the more normal traffic.

And as summer nears, responsive scheduling remains a much talk-about topic.

Opinions vary about the effectiveness of this 36 minutes between second and third period. 

“I think that’s [Panther-time] helpful for when you want to be with certain people,” freshman Ava Carder said. “And so that you don’t end up somewhere random. It’s helped me in those same ways.” 

PHS’ administrative team has decided to continue using this process to help the students with make-up work and homework. 

“Yes, we will use responsive scheduling,” Principal Mr. Timothy Wormald said. “However, it will look different next year.”

“We will assign each student two homeroom teachers. If a student is not scheduled for intervention, he or she will meet in the homeroom teacher’s class. We recognized the need for more consistency while, at the same time, providing time for intervention students who need it.” 

Some Panther Time features will remain. 

“Next year, students will have the same amount of time to work on their school work,” Mr. Wormald said. “However, where they go to do that will be more consistent day in and day out. Students may have the option from time to time [to choose their panther time teacher,] but they will have two primary teachers they will spend time with most often.” 

Even though responsive scheduling seems to have been going well towards the end of the year, there are still a few complications.

“The way we used responsive scheduling this year produced too many moving parts,” Mr. Wormald said. “Students were confused about where they need to be each day, and teachers did not always have the opportunity to see the students they needed to see. We also had a hard time keeping track of students sometimes.” 

Mr. Wormald isn’t the only one who had some problems with this confusing process. 

“This year was already a crazy year to begin with,” English teacher Miss Bailey Jackson said. “It was our first year with responsive scheduling, so I’m not entirely convinced that teachers used it the way they should have, or even know how to use it.”

Even though there have been some complications, there has been some success as well. School work gets done, grades improve, and education isn’t complicated. 

“I think [responsive scheduling] has been pretty useful,” junior Ethan Bartholomew said. “It helps students finish their work.” 

Bartholomew is not the only one with an opinion on the newly introduced study hall period.

“[Panther time] helps make sure you don’t end up in a room you don’t want to be in,” Carder said. “[Next year] they will have less to worry about and know where they [students] are going so they’re on time to their classes.”