New bell schedule is a significant improvement

Photo by Anirudh Iyer

A graphical depiction of the changes in the bell schedule over the last 5 years, illustrating the yearly annual shifts in both tutorial and class lengths. 

The district’s introduction of yet another bell schedule for the 2022-23 school year marked the third alteration in the last three consecutive years. In fact, the bell schedule has changed every year for the Class of 2023. 

A few months into first semester, however, the new bell schedule has proven to be more promising than previous ones. The implementation of daily tutorials and the reduction of class length from 90 to 85 minutes provide benefits for both staff and students.

Previous bell schedules were full of shortcomings; last year, the lack of tutorial on Red Days reduced opportunities for students to get vital help from teachers and study with their peers. Tutorial provides a supportive work environment where teachers and other students are present, making it an essential part of our school day. Only being able to ask for help every other day was a nuisance, especially given the abrupt entrance into in-person school and difficult coursework.

Last year, I often had little time to consult a teacher in moments when I was confused or needed to make up work. Because tutorials were simply too short and infrequent, I had to often dip into my free periods to get additional work done. 

Nowadays, I find myself able to get more work accomplished over a week as a result of daily tutorial. The 45-minute-long Blue Day tutorials are especially useful. In the first week of September, I got green sheets, recommendation letters and key assistance for AP Calculus BC before the infamous Chapter 2 Test — all during tutorial. Instead of handling these matters at home through email, I could pour my focus into the forty college essays I’m tasked with. Albeit not fun, at least I have far more time to churn them out early.

Though this new bell schedule has been a significant improvement compared to past iterations, it has some flaws. 

Lunches have been reduced from 35 to 30 minutes, and they seem to pass by in the blink of an eye. Even leaving campus for a place as close as Chipotle (3.2 miles away) requires extreme speeding. We don’t want to practice bad driving habits, but we feel pushed to the brink due to the too-short lunches.

It is understandable that the district is unable to accommodate lunches any longer than 30 minutes in our new schedule. However, a potential solution would be marginally reducing the length of passings. The necessity for a 10-minute long passing is hard to justify; students often find themselves lingering at their previous class or arriving way too early at their next class. If passings were reduced to enable a longer lunch, I, along with a significant portion of the student population, would be ecstatic. Perhaps a 5-minute passing and a 40-minute lunch could do the job. 

It’s important that this bell schedule lasts, or better yet, undergoes small but necessary tweaks for shorter passings and longer lunches. A consistent bell schedule for the coming years will benefit student and teacher plans immensely along with a necessary decrease in stress.