Malden High School students and faculty returned to several major changes to the schedule and policies for this school year, many of which began taking shape last year. From a later dismissal time to the removal of joy block and homeroom, the school day now feels different for both students and teachers.
One of the biggest updates, the late policy, was introduced last year as an effort to reduce hallway wandering and increase accountability for tardiness. If students are not in their class by the final bell after the warning bell, teachers lock their doors, and students need to be escorted to their class by hall monitors. While some students say it keeps hallways more organized, others feel it adds unnecessary stress. When their class is on the other side of the building, many feel anxious that they won’t make it on time.
Alongside the tardy system, a highly notable change is the school day ending at 2:25 p.m. instead of 2:15 p.m. The ten-minute extension was made to better align instructional hours with state requirements and to create more consistent class periods. Despite the fact that many students believe the additional ten minutes makes no difference, some students miss the earlier release.
Junior Aaliyah Ferreira expressed, “I have less time to get onto the bus for away games, no time to even get food after school since the extra ten minutes this year.”
Beyond the regular school day, there are no more half days on the school calendar. Instead, the district has opted for extended holiday breaks, giving students more time off around major holidays and vacations. This change is meant to simplify the calendar and provide more meaningful rest periods throughout the year. Initially, half days were meant to give faculty the opportunity for meetings, but now, meetings have been moved to after-school hours.
Joy block, a popular period known for its flexibility, allowed for many students to look forward to every gold day which landed on a Wednesday. Joy block allowed students to catch up on their work or participate in enrichment activities like watching movies, playing games, going for a walk, coloring, and many more creative, unwinding activities.
Its removal has been met with mixed feelings—some students appreciated the free time, while others used it for socializing, which the administration reportedly saw as unproductive and unnecessary. “For my mental stability, Joy block needs to be brought back, and any student would agree,” junior Julianna Mercidieu said.
“I need some time to myself, I want to have fun,” Ferreira stated. “I know we weren’t learning anything there, but for students, that’s their getaway from school work.”
Advisory has also been scaled back. Instead of meeting weekly or every other day, advisory now occurs bi-weekly, focusing mainly on academic check-ins and social-emotional learning. Extensions are now being used as class time, and junior Youssef Abu Rubieh believes “we should be using the extensions for another class period, or maybe just for studying to catch up on our classes.”
In previous years, extensions—formerly known as enrichment classes—were mainly used as free time to catch up on any missing assignments for any class. Teachers are now required to use the extension period as—quite literally—an extension of class.
Meanwhile, homeroom has been fully eliminated. Students now go directly to their first or fifth period at the start of the day, streamlining attendance and cutting down on transitional time. “I can get to homeroom and my class on time without having to worry about the transition. I would say this new policy has positively impacted me because there were times I couldn’t make it to homeroom,” Mercidieu explains.
These new policies mark a significant shift in Malden High’s approach to time management and student accountability. While the long-term effects of these policies remain to be seen, the changes have already sparked conversations among students and staff about the balance between structure and flexibility in the school environment.
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