Administrators have announced a new schedule for this year’s spring semester ACE (Assessments & Culminating Experiences) schedule. The last four days of the school year, from May 18 to May 21, will no longer include optional-attendance Preparation & Intervention Time (P&I) in the afternoons. Instead, students, aside from TCP seniors and those with release periods, are required to attend the full day. 

Monday and Tuesday will function as regularly scheduled blue and gold days, with B2 and B4 ACEs on Monday and G4 ACE on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday consist of makeshift SSRT time during the first block, where teachers can set up Minga passes for students to review or make up work; otherwise students will attend their traditional B2 Wednesday, and their assigned SSRT on Thursday during the first block. B1 and B3 ACEs will take place on Wednesday, and G1 and G4 ACEs will take place on Thursday, with all other repeated classes functioning as study sessions. 

This change, made in collaboration with the Educational Services Center, Carmel Teachers Association and community members, occurs following a “physical altercation” between juveniles in the Carmel Clay Public Library during last semester’s ACE week, resulting in an evacuation. Students frequented the library following ACE periods, ending at 12:15 p.m., since buses ran on the traditional schedule, picking up childrenat 4:05 p.m.

According to Associate Principal Katie Overbeck, changes to the ACE schedule are discussed frequently, and this change is not necessarily prompted by the events at the public library. 

“Honestly, we talk about it all the time, every year, and I’ve been at this school since 2000,” Overbeck said. “I think I’ve seen probably nine different iterations of a final exam, or ACE schedule as we’ve been calling it. Most recently, (we’ve been) trying to adjust that schedule, year to year. The most recent schedule where we had the half days was (made) after we had decided that it was good to not put too many finals on any particular day.”

By replacing P&I time with mandatory study periods, Overbeck said she hopes students will find more focused time to study for their upcoming exams. 

“This is a little more like, ‘Here’s 90 minutes, you’re about to take an exam, focus,’” Overbeck said. “They should be able to relax, let their brains get ready, reactivate the information at the front of their brain (and) get ready for that next phase, that’s the thought process.”

For senior Rachel Engbrecht, she said past incidents call for more authority over students between ACE periods.

“There was also stuff before (the library fight) too, like two years ago, someone tried to set a fire somewhere,” Engbrecht said. 

However, Engbrecht said other steps can be taken to address the issues prompted by the library confrontation, besides changing the ACE schedule again. 

“(They should have) just cracked down really hard on them,” she said. “We could have upped the SROs maybe.”

Engbrecht said she finds the change inconvenient for upperclassmen and students who can drive, limiting their ability to move freely. Despite this, she said it will make the transportation process easier, since students would not have to take normally scheduled buses and wait idly before or after ACE periods, or need to be picked up or dropped off by an adult during the day. 

Ultimately, Overbeck said, “We will reevaluate this after we do it.”