Revisions discussed for 2011-2012 bell schedule

By James Jewett | Staff Writer

With the 2011 school year coming to a close, talk about next year’s bell schedule is already underway. A major change that will definitely happen is a cut on the lunches.

“There’s a lot of talk about changes. There’s talk about mostly cutting down lunch, and they’re adding in an advisory or a study hall period so that people can get some extra work done,” said assistant principal Mitch Brown.

Brown has been involved in the new changes.

“We’d like to cut [lunches] back down to 30 minutes, so that we can get more time for instruction,” said Mr. Brown.

Much like the lunches during first semester exams,the period would last 30 minutes, with an advisory alongside it.

“Either before or after lunch; but it would be attached to lunch. So it wouldn’t be like an extended fourth, it would be something like fifth period lunch. Then it would be either the first 20 minutes of lunch, or the last 20 minutes would be an advisory,” added Brown.

Certain topics in advisory would be set arranged for instruction, addressing issues such as “sexting” and “character development”. “Phone etiquette” would also be in the mix.

“The idea is that we would not only have a study hall, but that there would be days for electronics etiquette, which is a big thing that we’re pushing towards. Character education, that sort of thing,” Brown said.

The district has not signed off on it, but Brown thinks that it’s going to happen.

“Were still waiting for, I think, some direction from the district about how they want us to do it. But if they leave the time up to us, we’re gonna go ahead,” Brown said.

The new schedule for the day could be beneficial for everyone; teachers and students alike.

“The whole thing is, we’re dropping the ‘A-B’ schedule because of trying to get a day that works for everybody. Our idea is that most people are done eating lunch in thirty minutes,” said Brown. “Really, most people are done in 20 minutes. That extra 30 minutes give you time to do something silly, so why not take that time and use it constructively?”

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