By Aaron Strow
On November 14th, 2025, forms were distributed to all of the students in IHS to determine which schedule they prefer. These options included: 80 minutes schedule, drop or snake schedule, not sure yet, and no preference. Furthermore, the form asked questions such as “what are you wondering about” and “what are you excited about”. However, there is some dispute on whether or not the board of education had too much influence over the school decisions.
I believe that the students had a fair share in the matter, as said by board official Dympna Kenny, “The Board carefully considered feedback from students and teachers, including Challenge Success survey data, and a Board presentation from Mr. Hirsch, staff and students.”
Along with this, the board makes decisions based on the Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Ratesic. As this was approved by her and the board evaluated her response, the idea was put in place.
Furthermore, “collaboration between Dr. Ratesic, Mr. Hirsch and the School Board,” according to Dympna Kenny, allowed for equal say and opinion. In light of this, I believe that the board did have a lot of influence over the schedule, but still took the say of students and teachers into their decision making.
However, there are some issues about students who chose the snake schedule, and did not get to see why their choice was rejected.
Wyatt Cloutman, a sophomore at Irvington High school argued “I voted for the snake schedule and I think the board had a lot of control over the decision because I know a lot of friends who also did not choose block.”
This concern regards the presentation by Mr Hirsch, where the new schedules were introduced to the entire high school. Especially for the forms, I feel that it would have been better to see the poll for the choices and/or more information on the new schedules. This could have been introduced from a Q/A session, a description on how the board made their choice, or more time to think about which schedule each student preferred.
Overall, after talking with the board, it is clear that the students did have a great influence in the process. Nevertheless, I think that the school could have done a better job introducing the schedule, and having a transparent process so that we could easily see our opinions shape the decision.
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