Prioritizing a healthy schedule for our Bearcats

KCD’s Daily Schedule

KCD will begin a phased rollout of a new daily schedule in the fall of 2024. With our mission at the heart of the new design, the research-backed updates to our daily routine in each division were thoughtfully selected with the health, wellness, and academic success of our students at the very center.

KCD remains committed to cultivating a safe, supportive, and academically rigorous environment that promotes curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking, as we prepare our dynamic 21st Century learners for success in the classroom and beyond.

2024-25 Schedule Updates

KCD will begin transitioning to our new schedule design through the implementation of several key features during the 2024-25 school year.

The School Day

The school day will begin at 8:30 am and end at 3:35 pm with a late start for students on Wednesdays (9:00 am–3:35 pm) to accommodate morning faculty meetings and professional development opportunities.

Because many KCD faculty members serve as coaches, tutors, advisors, and leaders of extracurricular activities around campus, after-school meetings are difficult for many to attend. The new late start day on Wednesdays will allow for 100% of faculty to attend critical team meetings and professional development opportunities, without sacrificing their involvement in community activities.

Morning & Afternoon Child Care

Morning child care will be available for students in JK-8th grades on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 7:30-8 am and on Wednesdays from 7:30-8:30 am. Morning child care will cost $5 per day.

We will continue to offer Bearcat Den after school until 6 pm for Lower School students. With the afternoon Bearcat Den hours being reduced by 30 minutes, our intention is that the morning fee will not impact the total added fees for families needing child care from 7:30 am through 6 pm.

Upper School students may arrive at school as early as 7:30 am at no extra cost.

Research in support of later start times

The School Year

The calendar year for the 2024-25 school year will look much like the 2023-24 school year. Click here for the most up-to-date version of our 2024-25 Major Dates.

Shared Community Time

Establishing shared community time across all three divisions will be an important step for our community as we prioritize JK-12 community building and cross-divisional collaboration. In every division there is a space dedicated to “Community Time.” While this time will not always be used for gathering the entire JK-12 community, it opens the doors for a variety of collaborative opportunities that were not previously possible. Community time may be used for all-school activities, division specific activities, special projects, guest speakers, advisory time, extra help, club meetings, and more.

The Lower School Schedule

The Lower School schedule for the 2024-25 school year will feature updates that will benefit our young learners and educators.

In the new schedule, our Lower School community will have increased “homeroom” time allowing for additional literacy and mathematical instruction to help match developmental benchmarks.

Our young learners will also experience fewer transitions throughout their day. This adjustment will help limit lost instructional time due to transitions and afford opportunities for deeper engagement with learning.

The Lower School will adopt a carousel model for our specials classes. In a carousel model one subject (Art, Science, Spanish, Maker, Library, or Music) is taught for several days in a row to the same group of students and then another subject from within the carousel (Art, Science, Spanish, Maker, Library, or Music) is taught for several days, and so on. This model further supports deeper learning, project-based learning, and cross curricular collaboration.

At KCD we value movement and play as an important element of a healthy learning environment. Our new schedule honors our commitment to intentional movement and play by incorporating daily PE and recess time for all Lower School students.

Lower School Schedule Examples:

The Middle & Upper School Schedule

The Middle and Upper Schools will implement a rotating block schedule for the 2024-25 school year.

Block schedules are very common nationwide and many Louisville-area schools use a variation of this model. The rotating block schedule that is planned for the 2024-25 school year will also be familiar to our students and faculty; the format is similar to the schedule we currently use on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays in the Middle and Upper Schools.

KCD’s rotating block schedule will feature a 7-day rotation of classes with four 75-minute periods per day and three trimesters in the school year. This schedule format maintains our existing rigorous academic program with the class periods reorganized to better serve the needs of our students and faculty.

The longer class periods will allow for deeper learning, project work, experiential learning, alternative assessments, and more total class time.
Students will experience each "block/class" period four times over the course of the 7-day rotation.
This schedule will address student wellness through:
- The later start time
- Fewer transitions throughout the day, with only four classes per day
- Added agency time (community time, lunch/recess, and extra help, etc.) which will provide opportunities for students to enhance their independent time management skills
- A stronger advisory program that will support community-building and student/teacher relationships
Extra help time will be available each day with all faculty available to meet with students during this period. Extra help time will operate much like office hours. In addition to the extra help time each school day, students will still be able to meet with faculty before school, after school, and when free time aligns during the school day.
Community time will be available each day (except Wednesdays)
The 7-day rotation ensures variety in the flow of the day and week for students and faculty.
- For example: Students will not have the same first class of the day every Monday or the same last class every Friday.
The adoption of this schedule format in both the Middle and Upper Schools will also improve cross-divisional functionality and increase opportunities for collaboration for faculty and students.

I wish...

Students in the Middle and Upper Schools participated in an "I wish" campaign, where they anonymously shared the many things they wished their families, teachers, and peers knew about their lives and school experiences. Below are some of the responses that were submitted, which further illustrate why our focus on health and wellness is so important.