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It’s Friday, Oct. 30, 2026: Sweeping changes are coming to the middle and high school schedules, and parents are in a panic. Top of their concerns? A significant loss of classroom instructional time – nearly 20 percent cuts at the middle school level. In this week’s West Chester Roundup, we talk about the impact on academic learning, how success is being measured, and the trade-offs of these decisions. “It would be great if we could add an hour to the day to do it all, but we can’t,” one parent tells me. We have charts showing what it’s going to look like.

Plus, after six months of playing nice, West Chester University and West Chester are heading back to the courts, East Bradford is getting a new church. We look at cathedral building in the 21st century. The Halloween Parade returns to Wednesday night, and I have your midterm election primer. If you’ve had your fingers in your ears for the last six weeks, it’s time to take a quick look. I’ve kept it simple and party-free. Wonder if you can tell who’s who.

Ok, who’s ready? Let’s catch up.

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Finally, a very special thanks this week to our newest Community Sponsor, Roman Coia Photographer. You probably know of Roman. Maybe not personally, but you’ve likely seen his work – the iconic portraits, actually memorable headshots, and those dog portraits. They’ll melt your heart. And if you don’t know Roman yet, you really should. Take a look at his work here.

You can access last week’s West Chester Roundup newsletter here.