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DOLLAR BAY -- It's been under consideration for a couple of years, but now the Dollar Bay-Tamarack City Schools are looking to make a switch to trimester scheduling for next fall.

The students have always performed well, but school officials are hoping that the proposed switch from quarters to trimesters will boost their academic success.

Principal Bill Rivest says the change would allow extra time for core subjects and electives as well as an opportunity to focus in on key subjects for certain grades.

"It's important for 7th graders to have a full year of English 7; we're going to focus on Algebra 1 in 8th grade, and we want to put a mandatory ACT prep in for 11th graders,” said Rivest.  “This gives us the flexibility to do that."

The main change with trimesters would be the number and length of classes in a school day.  Instead of seven 54-minute classes, students would take only five 77-minute classes.  And teachers would still have one free period, giving them more time to prepare for fewer classes.

"It’ll be great,” said junior Student Council Rep. Tim Dunstan.  “With the seven classes we have now, it can be a lot of work for students who also participate in extra curriculars."

"It’s intriguing to us because there's a lot of flexibility,” said English teacher Jesse Kentala.  “It gives teachers and students more options."

Rivest says they've talked with teachers from Munising, one of the two other schools in the U.P. that uses trimester scheduling, and heard only positive feedback.

At Dollar Bay, they've already considered the few drawbacks and made efforts to work around them because they see a lot more benefits with the switch.

"If we can relieve stress, I feel like the students will enjoy school more and be able to focus again on a smaller amount of course work," Rivest said.

There’ll be at least one more meeting for teachers and parents before any plans are finalized, but Rivest would like to see a decision made in the next few weeks so that they can start scheduling students for next year.