The University Prep administration presented their final schedule change of the 2020-2021 school year on Apr. 26, created to accommodate a range of critiques. The change comes despite the semester ending shortly after on May 21.
“I think the length of classes, the lunch being too short, all necessitated a change,” Director of Upper School Joel Sohn said. “A lot of it was student input. Some of it was family input … and faculty had input too.”
A common complaint from students was the 95-minute classes.
“It was really hard to focus, and even worse online,” senior Sloane Goldberg said. “The new schedule is much more relaxed and feels more normal.”
Due to this schedule change coming late in the year, accommodations to the schedule caused teaching hours to be lost.

“We had to cut some corners somewhere,” Sohn said. “Fortunately, the state and the governor modified the guidelines for how many contact hours students need to have, or how many class hours students need to have.”

Looking forward to next year, Sohn hopes for less turmoil around the shifting schedules.
“If the capacity stays at three feet, then there’s the ability to stay consistent throughout the whole semester and not have to change the schedule and be 100% in person,” Sohn said. “I think that’s our goal. We’re committed to being in person, it’s just a matter of what it’s going to look like.”
Next year’s schedule is still subject to change however. The UPrep community’s response to this final schedule will likely shape the schedule for the coming year.
“We’ve maintained the feedback we got from students and from families,” Sohn said. “We can use that information also to help us shape whatever schedule would come out.”