Duo Wei Yang

Decatur High’s School Leadership Team (SLT) is currently considering options for a new bell schedule in the near future.

SLT parent representative Elizabeth Webb is chairing the Bell Schedule committee to address various problems in the current school schedule.

“One motivation is the fact that the Theory of Knowledge course does not currently fit into the bell schedule, requiring students who need to take that class to come outside of regular school hours to complete it,” she said. “But there are other concerns as well, including the time to change classes.”

Bell Schedule co-chair Claire Shephard also agrees that there are new factors in Decatur that call for a new timetable for students.

“Looking at revisions to our bell schedule have come up due to growth in our student population, growth to our staff size, a changing building, the diverse academic needs of our students, and to ensure that the programs that we offer are supported,” she said.

Webb believes that the process will be fairly complicated.

The committee will have to be attentive to the needs of all of our stakeholders — students, teachers, parents, school leader [and so on,” she said. “Some would benefit from longer class periods that meet less frequently, some are better suited for shorter class periods that meet on a daily basis.

So far the Bell Schedule committee is composed of seven parents, two teachers and two to three student representatives.

The committee will work together this spring and summer, and any possible changes to the schedule will start in the 2017-2018 school year.

 

Illustration by Duo Wei Yang