Senior Johannah Harvey faces a nightly race to complete her school work before attending the same classes the next day. This has been a common struggle for many students in Loudoun County ever since the new AABB  schedule was put in place,  anticipating the transition to hybrid learning.

“I feel that it may make homework more stressful because there is less time to do it,” Harvey said. “Instead of having two days to complete it before our next class, we now have one.”

In an effort to limit students’ nightly workload, Carlos Zanabria, a student from Tuscarora High School started a petition that has received close to 15,000 signatures. He wrote a heartfelt letter explaining how he has dealt with sleepless nights trying to complete an unwarranted amount of homework. 

History teacher Christi Judd has also encountered challenges with the AABB schedule.

“It just condenses the work. Everything needs to be done on Monday for the week rather than finishing up on Tuesday or Wednesday,” Judd said. “It is challenging to turn around work in 24 hours rather than 48.”

Accordingly, the school board made a decision Oct. 13 to switch to an ABAB schedule, giving students extra time to finish their school work. The new schedule will take effect on Nov. 9. 

“I think it will help my workload a little bit because the assignments and due dates will be more spread out, and it will definitely help reduce my stress,” Harvey said. 

Sophomore Julianna Schray also experienced difficulty with the AABB schedule, and the resulting five-day gap between each A and B day. 

“I often forget information that I learned because the classes were so spread apart,” Schray said. “I would then have to reteach myself the lesson.” 

But Harvey noted that one downside to the switch is that she will have to adjust the timings of her other commitments. 

“I have created my work schedule around the times I am in school,” Harvey said. “Now I will have to recreate it, and I know lots of people who work after school are in the same boat.”  

Although the adjustment period for students may be strenuous, for teachers the transition is relieving stress.  

“I think that change will have a greater impact on my personal health,” Judd said, “because I won’t feel so much pressure to have A1 and A2  perfectly planned and B1 and B2 perfectly planned by Monday night.”

The schedule change has the potential to improve the teaching process in other ways as well. 

 “It will be easier to teach similar lessons on back-to-back days and provide feedback in a less stressful time frame,” Judd said. “By Thursday, we are all exhausted.”

The switch to an ABAB schedule set to take place Nov. 9 should reduce the workload for students and teachers, despite the possibility of a difficult adjustment. 

“I do think having the schedule return to what we all have known for so long will provide us with some peace of mind,” Judd said.