After months of assessment and discussion among administrators, a focus group of students, and community members, the district is weighing whether to adopt a block schedule format instead of its current seven-period day. The High School Schedule Assessment project began after Carrboro High School officials approached CHCCS a few years ago about trying to better align the four high schools’ schedules. Currently, Carrboro operates on a seven-period day with alternating A/B days to allow flexibility while Phoenix Academy is on a 4×4 block schedule and both Chapel Hill and East Chapel Hill high schools have a traditional seven-period schedule. The request led to a larger discussion about how to best optimize the high school schedule for the widest range of opportunities, according to CHCCS’ Deputy Superintendent Rodney Trice. “They talked about how the heavy course loads, carrying seven or eight classes a day for the entire academic year was very demanding,” says the deputy superintenden...