Starting with the 1971-72 school year, Walnut Ridge went into split sessions.

In Queens, for example, the city has eased overcrowding by running two split sessions that cheat students of one or two class periods per day.

Students in the Long Island school district have been forced to attend split sessions in the district's middle school.

By the 1960s, student numbers exceeded capacity, causing split sessions; upper classmen and sophomores attended school at different times of the day.

At the school, 2,533 of the 2,903 students attend split sessions that offer seven subjects in six periods.

At 50 schools, students have been on split sessions, with one school using the building in the morning and the other in the afternoon.

The need for a new senior high was paramount due to the use of split sessions - one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

The board's immediate problem, however, is correcting the schedules of the 39,000 students who do not attend schools with split sessions.

The new high school campus quickly filled up, at one time accommodating over 5,000 students who attended school in split sessions.

Now the Mayor is considering split sessions, which few officials would wish on their own children.