As the Cathedral Catholic community inches closer towards the end of second semester, the students and the administration have formed their views on the addition of the seventh period. It turns out that the transition has been just as challenging for the faculty as it has been for the students, but the administration will wait until the 2014-2015 school-year ends to work out the kinks.

Before the the feedback on the changes roll in, our community must be reminded why the administration implemented this class period in the first place. The seventh period “gives our students more options. We have done a great job over the years, but need to do more; therefore, the schedule allowed us to let all students have more choices to focus in every area of academics,” said Principal Michael Deely. Since adding another period to the class schedule, the Visual and Performing Arts were expanded, electives were increased, more AP and Honors classes were added, and additional dual-enrollment courses through UCSD were offered.

As the administration seeks to add onto Cathedral’s extensive course list, one of the pushes was to add more courses from UCSD. “[UCSD] is one of the best universities on the west coast and it gives a great advantage to our students for college applications, beyond what we can get with the traditional AP courses,” said Mr. Deely. USCD offers CCHS students to enroll in Calc D and Linear Algebra on our school campus while “improving our experience as educators by bringing professors to interact with us,” said Mr. Deely.

The class addition, for the faculty, “has been a big challenge to change,” Mr. Deely said. “Our faculty has weathered many changes from the school move a decade ago, and then the switch to Ipads, and now [the seventh period].” As with any change, adjustments must be made, which in return “has allowed us to add some phenomenal new faculty, and I know that once we get used to it, we will reap the rewards,” said Mr. Deely.

Allowing students to pursue other interests, the class addition has been helpful. “I think this school-year’s class schedule would take a lot of adjusting, but it’s beneficial since students are able to take more classes. I view the seventh period as a positive because I believe that in later years this schedule would be better, and that students would be able to do more with it,” said senior Lianna Marilao.

The addition of the seventh period has shown promising results to the administration, amidst the adjustments that ensued from the schedule change. “The average GPA went up for the entire student body at the quarter, and we had the lowest ineligibility list that we have known of in our school’s records. Our top students can earn GPAs equivalent to the competition and our average student should see a boost in GPA,” said Mr. Deely.

As a new addition to Cathedral’s school schedule, the seventh period is not permanently set in its current state. “I want us to work through the year to get some perspective on it, so we can use it to make us a better school for the future,” Mr. Deely said. The administration is working around the requests of teachers and the needs of students to better suit the seventh period for our community.

“For faculty, requests have been for next year to move the seventh period to a different time and/or with a longer passing period,” said Mr. Deely. Above all, the administration’s goal is to “evaluate the best time for using the period and to make a decision that should stick for many years to come.”

In the end, the seventh period allows Cathedral students to expand their horizons with new courses and the faculty to accommodate the students with their knowledge. “Our community speaks that we use our talents to build God’s kingdom. God has given our students many talents, and we have a responsibility – to God – to develop all of those talents,” Mr. Deely said.