East Aurora proposes new bell schedule
By Stephanie Lulay slulay@stmedianetwork.com March 18, 2013 10:30PM
Updated: March 19, 2013 4:55PM
AURORA — East Aurora leaders are considering changes to the High School’s bell schedule that would decrease the number of class periods.
Under the bell schedule proposed by a joint teacher-administration committee, in the 2013-2014 school year the number of daily class periods would be reduced from seven to six; students would spend more instructional minutes in class; student study hall minutes would be cut in half and an “intervention” period of 25 minutes could be added to the day.
Committee members who proposed the bell schedule believe that more instructional time and a “intervention” period for students to work on reading skills could lead to higher test scores, said East Aurora schools spokesman Adam Harding.
East Aurora School Board President Annette Johnson said the proposal has not been voted on and that she would favor a bell schedule that allowed for more extracurricular time than under the proposed plan. More discussion is needed, she said.
Harding said school leaders will meet with students after spring break to get their input before the school board votes on the 2013-2014 school year bell schedule.
East Aurora alumni Cameron Lippold, a 2012 graduate, presented the school board with 500 signatures of current and former East Aurora students who opposed the new proposed bell plan.
Lippold said that the new bell schedule would limit extracurricular choice and leave students less prepared for college.
“It just seems to me that there are too many issues to put [the proposed schedule]into act,” he said.
Although students would have the opportunity to take an extracurricular activity before or after school as part of a “zero” or “last” hour, Lippold said that wouldn’t work for high school students like him. When he was in high school, he was responsible for dropping off siblings before school and had a job after school, he said.
