Keaton Shaffer

Principal Chad Russell checks the time in the main hallway before first period. Russell and the administration implemented a revised bell schedule for the 2023-24 school year, which made notable changes to advisory and A lunch. “So we just cut the loss out, packed [advisory] into the end of 2nd period,” Russell said. “Lots of strategy.”

A new bell schedule has been implemented this year in accordance with state requirements to reach 90 minute class periods. Advisory, now included in the regular bell schedule, is no longer only two days of the week and has been shortened from half an hour to 16 minutes.

“We found that [the district was] losing money because we’re federally funded for some career and technology classes. We get federal funding for those, but the funding was only indicated off of if we had more than 90 minutes [of] instruction per day,” Principal Chad Russell said.

Despite state-level guidelines mandating 90 minute periods, class periods on advisory schedule during the 2022-23 school year lasted as short as 78 minutes excluding passing periods, with only 3rd period exceeding 90 minutes. This led to a loss of funding for those classes not reaching the mandatory minimums.

“When I’m saying losing money, I’m talking millions of dollars,” Russell said. “That’s sizable.”

Regardless of the time change, advisory periods remain set aside for teacher-led lessons, morning announcements and the Pledge of Allegiance. Additionally, with it split up between each day of the week, students are actually spending more time in advisory per week than under the previous schedule, which means it will more often act as a study hall. This extended time now directly follows 2nd period, negating the need for an additional passing period.

“The reason we’re not even ringing a bell is it takes seven minutes to get you guys from point A to point B. That’s seven minutes lost,” Russell said.

Aside from the loss of the previous advisory structure, questions regarding passing periods and how they are included in lunches have also been prompted. During last school year, A lunch started at the beginning of 3rd period on both advisory days and regularly scheduled days, meaning that it was the only lunch out of the four with a dedicated passing period. Now, under the new schedule, A lunch begins at the bell that ends advisory and starts the passing period, instituting a congruent block of time among all lunches.

“If I had B, C, or D lunch [last year], it was 30 minutes, bell to bell,” Russell said. “I’ve always had the problem with [the inconsistency] and this gave me the opportunity to make A lunch the same as B, C, and D.”

The new bell schedules are listed on the district website here.