An additional 30-minute break has been proposed by the Prefect Council to be integrated into the daily schedule next year.

The break will rotate between Tuesday and Friday and classes will be shortened to 40 minutes so that the time school ends will not be affected, Senior Prefect Emma Kaplan ’08 said.

The Prefect Council is also considering having the break later in the day so that students without many frees have a more convenient time to eat lunch, Kaplan said.

“From the beginning of the year we’ve been thinking about how little time the community spends together. We wanted to find ways for people to join more clubs, have time to hang out with their friends, have time to eat and really just be a part of the community,” Kaplan said.

The administration has encouraged the Prefect Council to help students be more active in the changes implemented in the school, Kaplan said.

The Prefect Council has been asking students to sign a petition to show student body support to the administration. Student response has been generally enthusiastic, Kaplan said.

“Sometimes I go without a free until eighth. It would be nice to break up my day,” Olivia Kestin ’09 said.

“I’d say 99.9 percent of the student body is very enthusiastic. Kids really want this,” Kaplan said.

“Obviously they want 40-minute classes, but what they really want from the extra break is to do more things and have more time to spend with their friends.”

The Prefect Council will wait until the petition includes the majority of the student body and then they will present the petition and the proposal to the administration.

“I doubt that teachers will like it. For example, science teachers may not have time to finish labs and doubles will be cut short,” Ketter Weisman ’09 said. “But I think it’s a really good idea and I really like that we get out of school at the same time.”

The shorter classes will cause teachers to lose about 60 minutes of class time per semester.

“I think once teachers realize that they are not losing that much class time and that they see the benefits of the break for students they’ll come along with the idea,” Kaplan said.