Aria Tahilramani
Febuary 2nd, 2023
This school year marked the beginning of a new bell schedule, one met with a lot of negative
opinions. The longer 85 minute classes combined with starting at 8:00 AM and ending at 3:30 PM were some of the drastic changes implemented in this year’s first bell schedule. However,feedback heard from the student body as well as our class and school representatives managed to modify the bell schedule in late September. Now that the student body has experienced this revised bell schedule for more than a month, mixed reviews and opinions have been shared regarding the changes that this revised schedule brought.
James Ellis (G10) , expressed that he preferred this revised schedule better because of shorter class periods (80 minutes), later start time in the morning (8:30 AM), and that PCG was only on Wednesdays. Similarly, Lily Gao (G9) likes that the new schedule “makes it so that I can either get home earlier or finish sports earlier.” This was a concern for many in regards to the old schedule, so now many students enjoy ending much earlier. Most students also missed having a late start in the morning, and was one of the things that the majority of the student body was happy about when receiving this revised bell schedule.
However, a lot of students actually preferred the older bell schedule. Laura Leal (G10) expresses that she misses having a dedicated flex time in the middle of the day, as it was a time that was previously primarily used for club meetings. She expresses that “now, a lot of clubs have to either meet in the morning before school or after school, which almost makes the later start time and earlier end time redundant.” She goes on to mention that the schedule for the 2021-2022 school year ended at 2:35 on days with no homeroom, so the new schedule is still not up to par with what students want back. Furthermore, Ariane Lee (G10) states that she prefers the old schedule more, saying that the flex time in the middle of the day “allows me to get in a more productive mindset where I can meet with my teachers and get more work in.” She also prefers the 20-minute transition period between first and second period, as it allows her to rest and recharge with friends before the next class.
During the time of the older schedule at the beginning of the school year, many complained
about the later end, earlier start, and longer classes. With the help of the student body, ExCo and administration managed to revise the schedule to fit most of our wants and needs. However, it is still not the ideal schedule and some even prefer the old schedule that was met with a lot of feedback, showing that not every student can win when it comes to the perfect schedule.