New Oak Ridge High School principal Garfield Adams wants longer class periods for next school year. He explained the reasons for wanting block scheduling at a regular meeting and later a work session of the Oak Ridge Board of Education. In both meetings he was joined by ORHS Assistant Principal Amber Roberts. “The biggest benefit to a block schedule, what I think is critical especially now in the pandemic, is students will have another opportunity,” he said. “There is significant regression (in education),” he told the School Board, regarding the pandemic period, which resulted in closed schools, then fully online learning, then the current system which allows high school students to take classes in-person on certain days of the week, at home other days.