A frenzied group of Fieldston students rushes from the depths of an involved club meeting to an expanse of identical buses lining Manhattan College Parkway. Uncertain that they will find their bus in time for the sharp 3:30 departure, they frantically search and hope for the best. This quandary, seemingly insignificant to the average individual, has become the reality of many Fieldston Upper School students intent on engaging with the community in the unique setting clubs offer. Up until now.
On Monday, November 27th, Assistant Principal for Student Life Rashad Randolph issued a statement announcing that beginning Tuesday, November 28th, the Tuesday afternoon early buses would leave at 3:45 p.m. The time would take the place of the jarring 3:30 p.m. dismissal that had become an accepted inconvenience for all Activities period participants. To accommodate the switch, Activities will now begin at 2:50 and end at 3:35. All the more, five minutes have been shaved from the end of Tuesday’s C band. These changes, while seemingly minuscule, come as a relief to the scores of students previously forced to rush between commitments and cut meetings short to make the bus in time.
In fact, students just might have been the cause of this radical shift of schedule. This past October, FSG Presidents Remy Lipman (Form VI) and Sophie Basner (Form VI) offered the student body the chance to voice their opinions on the bus schedule via a form sent out to Fieldston Upper. After a few months of enduring the same 3:30 p.m. stress, many are pleased to see the schedule finally changed for the better.
Charlotte Wulfsohn (Form IV), a self-proclaimed “student who loves clubs,” described the change in departure time as “fantastic.” Abigail Naudeau (Form IV), adds, “It’s better that the bus leaves later at 3:45 because otherwise [doing] a club becomes a mess.” Naudeau is not alone in her thinking, with another student stating, “3:30 just made it so difficult to map out my schedule. I never knew when I should be going where, and I am very happy the buses now leave later.” Brianna Bailey (Form IV) summarized the consensus of thoughts, remarking, “I am glad that they changed [the departure time] so that Activities ends a little later, and we can all still get home safely.”
For those eager to return home even earlier, the middle school bus remains a viable option, especially with a shorter Tuesday C band now becoming routine. However, a shorter C band does not equally impact every community member. As Hayden Cushing (Form IV) explained, “It is good the bus leaves at 3:45, but it’s unfortunate that C band got cut off for five minutes because that’s an important class for me, personally.” Reasonably so, she went on to reveal, “It’s Chem.”
Students also raised qualms regarding the bus schedule on other days of the week like Wednesday, for one. Sophia Thompson (Form IV) takes the bus daily and often worries about getting to her destinations at a timely hour. She expressed, “[On Wednesday], we get out at 3:00 p.m. and [the bus] actually leaves at 3:30 p.m. That’s a bit of a pain because I have stuff that I need to get to, and it takes quite a while for the buses to leave.”
The reality remains that no sole schedule or departure time will be perfect. Conflicts will persist, meetings will go long and C band periods will be disadvantaged amid it all. Nonetheless, many look favorably upon the switch and all the exciting possibilities fifteen extra minutes of activities will allow for. Thompson best synthesized the overarching sentiment towards the new Tuesday departure time with the statement, “I’m very grateful that the [departure time] was switched on Tuesdays because it allows for more flexibility. Clubs are a big part of Fieldston, everyone is involved and I think this allows for greater participation in the community as a whole.”
