LT’s Board of Education agreed to accept the idea of a new bell schedule for the upcoming 2015-2016 school year, as of the Oct. 7 meeting. The newly proposed bell schedule would shift the school day around to accommodate the addition of a 25-minute study hall combined with a 25-minute lunch period.

With the expected completion of the new NC cafeteria by March of 2015, under the potential new schedule, the amount of lunch periods would drop from five to two. The proposal would also eliminate split classes with a lunch in-between.

The initial push to allocate student study time first came up around five years ago when LT started the process of enacting Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). These PLCs are a framework of education reform that focuses on ensuring student learning and collaboration between students and staff with an emphasis on attaining results.

“When Lyons Township began implementing PLCs a significant piece of the PLC framework was to provide students with time during the day for study, supports and interventions.  It was at that time that staff identified this change as an important piece moving forward,” said Principal Brian Waterman.

So far, the initial sampling of schedules has class periods shortening up from 51 minutes to a 48 or 49 minute period, according to Associate Principal Kevin Brown; however, Brown expects teachers to find ways to adjust to their schedules so that does not pile on more work for students.

The frontrunner schedule, specifically, has class beginning at 7:40 a.m. next year and dismissal at 3:02 p.m. as opposed to the current 7:45 a.m. start and 2:59 p.m. finish.

An additional piece that could come into play next year is the implementation of late start on Wednesdays every week, instead of every other week. The majority of the staff on the bell schedule committee expressed interest in carving out more time for PLCs and believe this could be accomplished through weekly late starts.

“There have been a good number of requests from our teacher teams currently working in PLCs for additional time to accomplish the considerable amount of work they’ve been asked to do,” Brown said. “One idea to allow this extra time is to move to a late start every Wednesday which would effectively double the amount of time. The down-side of this approach would be the loss of instructional time.”

The board will push to finalize this portion of the bell schedule change alongside the main proposal.

The current trajectory for the board to review the final, proposed bell schedule is no later than late January/early February and most likely will be sooner, according to Waterman.

Student Representative for the Board of Education, Amanda Bolton ‘15, approves of the implementation of a new bell schedule and does acknowledge the initial difficulty students might face adjusting to the idea.

“I personally feel that the new schedule will be beneficial to students next year, and I expressed that to the board,” said Bolton. “I know that it’s a really big change and it may be kind of hard at first for people to adjust to the new schedule, but overall I think it’s a good thing for LT students.”

A point of contention that has been floating around the school is the issue of students taking elective study halls in addition to the 25-minute study period, both athletic and regular, as well as what students will be allowed to do during the 50 minutes of lunch and study hall.

“The ability of students to take elective study halls will not change as a result of adding the 25-minute study period,” Waterman said. “Students will still be allowed to take elective study halls.  In addition, the practice of allowing students to participate in Athletic Study Halls will not change either.  If we eliminated elective study halls it would completely override the purpose of creating a 25 minute period in the first place.”

Overall, the new bell schedule strives to accommodate students and teachers and gives both parties involved a chance to accomplish more work, get help and take a moment to breathe during a jam-packed school day, Brown said.

“I think by and large, this will be something that when we look back, everyone will say, ‘I think it is better,’” said Brown. “It’s not going to fix everything, but if the goal is to find time to help students who are struggling and to give successful students time to get things accomplished, I think we’re going in the right direction.”