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Serving students from Echo Park, Silver Lake and Atwater Village, John Marshall High School will return to a "traditional calendar" on Sept. 7 for the first time in 16 years. The Los Feliz-located high school has been on a "year-round, multi-track calendar" in order to accommodate its student population of 4500, however with the opening of Sonia Sotomayor High School in Glassell Park, that number is about to drop by half, according to The Eastsider LA.
“This will make us one big family again, as opposed to a fragmented one,” said Assistant Principal of Counseling Gerald Devries. “It will also make communication on campus as a whole, much easier.” The return to the traditional calendar will give students 10 consecutive weeks off during between June and August. In comparison, the multi-track system includes two separate, four-week breaks between semesters.
Marshall has been the only area school on a multi-track schedule. Parents with children at Marshall and at traditionally scheduled "feeder" middle and elementary schools have had to managed different school year calendars. The new schedule also means school starts at 8:00 a.m., not 7:15 a.m. The school day will still end at 3:15 p.m.