Written by Alexandra Lynch

As the 2024 to 2025 RCDS school year starts, several new changes have been implemented into the school system. The adaptations to the daily schedule mean that students are expected to be at school by 8:25 to arrive at House for attendance by 8:30. Contrasting with last year’s schedule, House has been shortened by 5 minutes and will run until 8:35. This alteration allows for the second change in schedules: passing time. Between each class, students will now have 5 minutes to arrive on time to the next block, as opposed to last year when no passing time was provided. Despite these changes, most aspects of the schedule have not changed since last year, such as community time, the lunch period, and office hours. Community time will continue to happen after the first two blocks of the day, consisting of Community Meeting, Clubs, Class Meeting, Advisory, and Community Forum. The lunch period will still contain Z1 and Z2 blocks, and the day will end with half an hour of office hours starting at 2:45 and ending at 3:15. As before, the schedule will run on a six-day rotation, with 4 blocks meeting per school day. 

In addition to the schedule changes, new staff have joined the upper school. Tim Derby is one of those new staff as he joins the math department this year.  Having completed his M.Ed. in Secondary Education Mathematics at Boston College’s Lynch, Mr Derby went on to teach Algebra 2 in College and holds a B.A. in mathematics from Hamilton College. Coming from Ransom Everglades School in Florida, Andrea Gallardo is yet another math teacher to join the RCDS community. With an M.A. in Mathematics Education from Teachers College, Columbia University and a minor in Mathematics from Smith College, she specializes in Advanced Calculus AB and Calculus. The third teacher joining the math department is Charles Worrall, who is transferring from Horace Mann School after working as the Head Math Instructor and chairing the Math Department. He graduated from Williams College with Honors in Math and English, also teaching courses from pre-algebra to advanced calculus. Outside of the math department, Natasha Dooley will be joining the RCDS science department from the Brearley School, where she created the science curriculum. Holding a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Chemistry from Howard University and an M.Sc in Neuroscience and Education from The City College of New York and Teachers College, Columbia University, she has a strong background in Science education. The fifth and final new Upper School teacher is Catherine McRoy-Mendell, who is joining RCDS from Upper Canada College as a Humanities teacher. From McGill University she holds a Bachelor of Commerce and from Teachers College she holds a M.A. in Social Studies Education, also previously teaching AP Economics and Psychology.      

Along with these academic changes, various new rules have been added to the school year. One of the most contentious is the new cell phone policy where students are required to power off their phones and smartwatches and stow them in their bags from the start of House to the end of the last block. This is a major change from last year when students had free use of their phones during the school day. According to the new policy, if a student needs to use their phone for an emergency they are allowed to visit the upper school office to make a call. Teachers can permit students to use their phones during class for learning purposes, but if used without permission, their phones may be taken away after one warning.

 That being said, students are still expected to bring their phones to school, as they must use them to sign in before House. Students must use an app, Ruvna, to record attendance when they reach school. Also used when signing out early, Ruvna will enable a more accurate and efficient assessment of absent students. Finally, a new theme has been attributed to the year: Connection. In accordance with the cell phone policy, students will be encouraged to live in the moment, build new relationships, and lean on the community which defines RCDS as a school.