Now that the construction of the new building is complete, Dana Hall has slightly modified the academic day schedule. The passing period has returned to five minutes, and the Conference Period is now 30–40 minutes depending on the weekday. In addition, a short snack time has been added after the Conference Period, and the afternoon ends five minutes earlier on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.
Five-minute passing period was already part of the schedule until two years ago when construction began. Director of Upper School Amy Kumpel stated that the “Ten-minute passing period [was] just meant to exist during construction because campus got so much bigger during that time.” Before the transition into the new building, students and faculty members had classes all over campus including Bardwell, Temporary Classroom Building, and Erismen Student Center. The passing period was “extended […] to accommodate the travel time from place to place during construction.”
Ms. Kumpel indicated that the reintroduced snack time was based on student feedback: “We also heard loud and clear from students last year that snack was very important.” Additionally, Ms. Kumpel has expressed her satisfaction with the new schedule change, and points out that she has “seen a lot more students using Conference period more effectively knowing that [students] have a dedicated snack time right after Conference period.”
All School Co-Presidents Brianna Revanche ’25 and Yvonne Hao ’25 are both in favor of the longer Conference period and emphasized its value. Yvonne reports that the “longer Conference Period gives me more time to study and ask teachers questions.” Brianna agreed, explaining that “I’d rather feel rushed getting to my next class than be rushed trying to understand my homework or my class work.”
Both students acknowledge the rushed feeling of the five-minute passing period, but Yvonne observed that the ten-minute passing period was often wasted: “Sometimes we would wait five minutes before class starts, and I don’t think that it is an efficient use of time.” Brianna believes that the five-minute passing period opens up more opportunities: “more snack time and social time with your friends, more time to understand your class work, more than five minutes for that extra transition time to get to sports, put your clothes on and do things like that.”
Bella Romualdez ’26 preferred the longer passing period and believes that “the old schedule prior to the five-minute passing period was more beneficial to students.” She noted that “A lot of students now will arrive one minute or right on time for class so we usually start class two minutes late anyways.” She finds it difficult to adjust to the five-minute passing period: “I used the ten-minute passing period […] to get to classes quicker and I would still have a lot of time to adjust as well as set up for those classes […and] quickly ask the teacher questions before the actual class started. But now we don’t have those because we are always rushing to class.” Bella also suggested that students should have the freedom to choose when they can get snacks throughout the Conference period.