Administration looks for schedule balancing academics, school social constructs

Schedule modifications offer a double edged sword within school buildings. On one hand, the shift in routine can prove disruptive for those who prefer set rhythms. For others, they break the monotony and provide variety. For the remainder of this year, there will be far fewer  60-minute W-hours, following a tradeoff between alternate W-Hour lengths.

 This ultimate decision trickled down from OASD administration and Principal Becky Montour, who clarified the situation. 

“I wouldn’t say we are cutting them off, but we have more planned for the rest of the year. What happened this year was, we had to choose between having a 45 minute W-hour or a sixty-minute W-hour,” she said. “We weren’t allowed to have both within our bell schedule due to an Infinite Campus feature, so we chose the 60-minute. However we found that they get a little bit too long and we are losing more class time because of that.”

Sixty-minute schedules rearrange the usual school day, as each class is shortened by five minutes to allow for longer W-hours for special occasions, such as pep rallies, snowblast, or other pre-coordinated school activities. According to sophomore Hiba Malik, many students eagerly anticipate lengthened W-hour days due to the condensed schedule. 

“I’m always excited for 60-minute W-hours because that means shortened class periods and those five minutes shaved off the class period mean everything to me,” she said.

Malik expressed her preference for using the time to have meaningful, fun discussions with peers. 

“Me and my friends always go to the same 60-minute W-hour, because it usually means something fun is going on,” she said. “For example, this last 60-minute W-hour I went to World Religions Club and we had a great conversation for an hour.”

Other than just going to clubs, students also felt hour-long W-hours were a way to get homework and other work done at school. Freshman Kenzie Reasons believes that this time is beneficial for balancing school and life. 

“There’s a lot more time to do homework and what not,” she said. “If I can’t get it done that night or if I just get it done during the day then I don’t have to do it at night and I have more free time.”

Others, such as freshman Morgan Lovell, enjoy the laid-back schedule and time for independent work. 

“It's like another class period to do my hobbies and work on projects where I don’t feel the time-crunch,” she said. 

Extended W-hours also serve as a means of raising school pride and morale, specifically through activities like pep rallies, snowblasts, and others. Math teacher and student government advisor Kimberly Kargus-Meyers feels they provide an effective way to coordinate academic meetings or work with students outside of class, especially during testing seasons. 

“As a teacher they do serve an academic purpose of course for things like the ACT prep. It’s kind of nice every now and then for kids that need to make up tests and things like that,” she said. “As a club advisor, it's nice when you want to run a certain activity like homecoming pep rally, or snowblast or dodgeball or things like that.”

These full school gatherings during hour-long W-hours can create a more united school front, especially in pre-planned events like pep rallies where the entire school bonds in a collective environment for an hour. However, Montour also highlights the imperative balance of work and play.

“When we were running them for snowblast and homecoming, and we were able to fit the dodgeball tournament in, these were great for culture building and school morale,” she said. “It’s just always just finding that balance from disrupting the regular school day and the schedule and making the time for fun.”

Jacob Smasal of the Social Studies Department feels rather pleased over the decline of 60-minute W-hours due to the classroom and educational disruptions they created. 

“60-minute W-hours disrupt my class schedule, and we lose five minutes off the end of every class and it kind of throws off the rhythm of the day,” he said. “I, for one, am not upset that we are cutting off 60-minute W-hours.” 

According to Montour, this year’s schedule has been somewhat a work in progress. 

“What happened this year is we didn’t really plan out the entire year in advance about when we wanted to have all the W-hours,” she said. “So as things are coming up, it's like ‘Oh, let’s do a 60-minute W-hour’ out of nowhere and a lot, and it has felt kind of chaotic.”

Kargus-Meyers observed that setting limited 60-minute W-hours in advance seems to be the common consensus going into the 2026-27 school year. 

“It would be nice to see a schedule ahead of time or pre-planned for the entire year rather than just saying ‘Nope, we’ve reached our limit’.”

Montour states that pre-planned w-hours for the year will likely be the plan in the future to ensure equity regarding all events having access to the needed extra time.

“My plan is to work on it around May of this year and get the entire year mapped out so we can fit everything in,” she said. “Next year, the hope would be that we have, for instance,  the dodgeball tournament on the calendar since we weren’t able to do it this year and then if something comes up last minute, we’ll be able to look at the calendar and say if we already have this week reserved for something else.” 

by Raluca Miron 

Published March 20, 2026

Oshkosh West Index Volume 122 Issue VI