By: Vanessa Nguyen; Staff Writer

For the past 64 years, Mills High School has been changing up how we’ve run our school. At the moment, we run on a block day schedule; even periods on Tuesdays and Thursdays, odd periods on Wednesdays and Fridays. Based on how we’ve seen our students execute their time in school, even with flex periods to finish their work, some students are showing less and less progress than they had in the beginning of the year. Because of this, in the following year, 2022-2023, our school will be switching things up. 

In the next few years, we’ll be trying to transition into a new schedule. From next year on, students will be sorted out, not only by grades, but subgrades by GPA. This would help students work with their peers in the same level of learning as them. Depending on how they do this year, we are going to sort them into a higher or lower level in their class. Principal Duszynski states “It’ll allow the students to work better with the peers that are on the same level as them.” 

This is definitely unpopular in the eyes of the students. Some of them feel as if this new set-up is unfair and it won’t work as the school board expects. Although, a small handful of students do agree because the students who match their level of thinking will have the opportunity to work with them and solve problems at a different pace than others. “I personally like the idea because I feel like if I’m working with someone in the same learning range as me, I’d be able to work with them easier,” says Sophomore Chloe Ho.  Freshman Mia Khan says, “It would seem unfair to students placed in a lower range though,” in response. 

With the students debating between pros and cons of this new class order, we interviewed some teachers for their opinions and perspectives. Mr. Wang sees this and approaches it in a negative manner. “All the students need a fair amount of time to achieve their level of education and that only works if they all work together.” and has multiple teachers backing him up.