Next year, Highland’s schedule will face a change, making opportunities to sleep in less frequent. The Salt Lake City School District is eliminating asynchronous days, also known as C-days.

C-days were first put in place when Highland went online in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic, because at that time, there was not an A-B day schedule; it was A-only classes during first and third quarters, B-day classes during the second and fourth terms. Because teachers had to have the same classes all through the week, Wednesdays were always asynchronous as a way to help them have a day to get organized and have a little time to plan and grade. These mid-week no-school days were also a great way for students to sleep in, regroup, get caught up, and possibly leave the house.

“This was a decision that was made by the calendar committee for the Salt Lake City school board to get rid of the asynchronous days,” Highland Principal Jeremey Chatterton said.

When students finally were allowed back in school for the year, asynchronous days happened every term instead of weekly, and over the past two years, they have become required teacher developmental days.

Students have always been assigned some homework on C-days, but that was always manageable due to the fact that they didn’t have to come into school.

“I like [C-days] quite a bit,” Highland sophomore Sean Grube said. “I don’t appreciate having to do work for both classes, but generally, I’d much rather keep them than having to do away with them.”

But now, the district feels that it would be best for students to simply stay in school for as much time as possible.

This change won’t do anything to alter the number of days students attend school, as C-days were always counted on the calendar as regular school days.

The good news is this: now when Highland students happen to have a day off from school, it won’t technically be a school day, which means teachers won’t be required to assign work.

Another change that will be put in place in next year’s schedule is the earlier start date in August, which will allow school to get out before Memorial Day in 2024.