By Moriah Schranz

The 2025-2026 school year at Maury High School has begun with some major changes.

Norfolk Public Schools has transitioned into a 4×4 schedule. This means that there are four classes taken every day each semester.  This is drastically different from the even-odd schedule of previous years.

Aside from obvious scheduling differences, the new program accounts for many pros and cons.

Mr. Romerico Jamora, AP math teacher at Maury, teaches both AP classes, which remain full year, and regular 4×4 classes that are 4×4 scheduled.  He expressed his hesitancy toward the 4×4 schedule.

“I prefer the even-odd schedule,” said Jamora. “With the 4×4 schedule, it is much harder to grade since I now have half the time.”

Jamora did not seem concerned about the material of the class, a common critique of the 4×4 schedule. He insisted that even though the class would only be a semester long, all of the curriculum would be covered because of the daily classes.

For those students in all AP classes, their schedules are unchanged. Luke Shomaker, a senior, says that the new schedule has not affected him at all.

AP teachers with no regular or honors courses are also unaffected.  Mr. Alexander Dubik, an AP Environmental Science teacher at Maury, says that his schedule looks very similar to last year.

Freshman Ashlin Sweeney expresses her scheduling frustrations with the 4×4 schedule.

“It is really annoying because my first semester is all of my hard classes while my second semester is all my easy classes,” Sweeney said. “I wish they were spread out.”

Sweeney also explained that she was scheduled to take both Spanish 3 and Spanish 4 the same year, one each semester.

When students take a mix of AP and non-AP classes, that is when schedules can get confusing. Students must take an even number of classes so that they do not have a free bell for one semester. If someone wanted to take three AP classes and have no free bells, this would not be possible, since AP classes alternate daily and non-AP classes do not.  For example, if a student has AP Language and Composition during the first block on an A-day, the student must have another AP course during the first block on a B-day.

During previous school years, it may have been easier to navigate this change, as juniors and seniors were both allowed free bells. With the free bells, students have more room for flexibility in their schedule. But, starting this school year, only seniors are allowed to have them.

Maury Guidance Counselor Mrs. Zuri Cannon shared her thoughts on the pros and cons of the 4×4 schedule.

” I think that the 4×4 scheduling will benefit a lot of our students greatly,” said Cannon. “However, I do think that it poses certain disadvantages and challenges for students who want to take a few courses or are participating in band or orchestra or other full-year offered courses.  That is unfortunate, but hopefully we will find a solution.”

Cannon went on to explain a possible positive outcome of the 4×4.

“I think 4×4 benefits the student teacher relationships,” Cannon said. “Seeing your kids every day and having less kids in a semester allows teachers to have a better knowledge of their students. I think that it’s also easier for kids, especially those who may not be able to handle certain levels of rigor, to have just four classes to focus on.”

There are certainly benefits and weaknesses to the 4×4 schedule, and students, teachers, and other staff members are still adjusting. The true test of success will be at the end of the first semester when SOLs are taken.

In response to the prospect of increased SOL scores, Cannon was optimistic.

“I think that there is certainly a possibility for that. I think that other districts have seen an increase.”

Time will tell if the schedule improves test scores or not.