The return to school brought back many groans for all after a much needed (and appreciated) break, but also excitement as the first week of the second semester the Irish returned to the Hill for in-person schooling.

As any good coach, teacher or leader will acknowledge, there are always things to improve upon in any system. The faculty and leadership of the school, with much influence by the Academic Leadership Team, collaborated on a way to improve the second semester schedule to best fit student needs.

The Academic Leadership team, spearheaded by Vice Principal for Academics Mr. Mark Matthews, STEM director Dr. Aarti Brooks, humanities director Mrs. Lizabeth Bradshaw, counseling director Mrs. Gretchen Watko ’00 and Holy Cross director Ms. Ashley Hill, along with Principal Mrs. Julie Barthel, created the new schedule with the hope of giving students more opportunities to be less stressed and relaxed during the school day, all while retaining the same amount of academic minutes, or as said by Mrs. Barthel, possibly even more.

The new eLearning schedule condenses the school day and makes it more efficient, taking out the former 10-minute passing periods in exchange for every school day starting at 9 a.m., a trade-off that most every student welcomes with due to the opportunity for extra sleep, which is based on research and best practices.

For putting a schedule into place that works best for students, the Megaphone staff thanks the administration.