BHHS to Implement New Bell Schedule

Beverly Hills High School will have a new bell schedule in the fall, its third schedule in three years.

The Board of Education unanimously approved the new schedule at its meeting Tuesday after a presentation by BHHS Principal Carter Paysinger and Assistant Principal Jennifer Tedford. A new schedule was needed after auditors told school officials that the high school was not meeting the state minimum of 64,800 minutes of instruction for every student in grades nine, 10 and 11.

The 64,800 minutes a year works out to 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. a day, Paysinger said. But such a model is not workable for BHHS because of student activities such as athletics, performing arts and other clubs, he said.

As a result, the committee of teachers and administrators who devised the new schedule came up with a hybrid of longer days on Mondays and Tuesdays and shorter instructional days Wednesdays through Fridays, when most activities are scheduled.

The new schedule consists of 390 minutes of instruction over six or seven periods on Mondays and Tuesdays, and 356 minutes over six periods Wednesdays through Fridays. In addition, one week a month there will be a special schedule on Wednesday and Thursday in which students can self-schedule a special topic of study.

“We are excited to have an enrichment period built in once a month ... where students can log in to a Web-based program and self-schedule,” Tedford told the board.

The committee mapped out the bell schedule for every week of the school year; click here to see the new schedule. Click here to see the current BHHS bell schedule.

The precise schedule was designed to ensure that the high school is meeting the minimum 64,800 minutes a year. Board members said they were concerned that in recent years of bell schedule changes, they were assured the minimum  requirements were being met only to find out later that the minimum was not met.

“Our No. 1 goal was to come up with a bell schedule that works for many years. ... It is only as of last year that we began calculating all of the minutes of instruction, counting for special days like career day,” Tedford said.

Several board members expressed concern that some students will finish their academic day as early as 1:05 p.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays with the new bell schedule. They noted that such early days affect the district’s ability to offer other school services, such as lunch.

“I think this flexibility [in the schedule] is a privilege, one that has been abused for a long period of time,” member Jake Manaster said. “This kind of flexibility doesn’t exist in the real world.”

Paysinger said that under a new school policy accompanying the schedule, students in grades nine through 11 would not be allowed to leave campus for non-school related activities before 1:45 p.m, perhaps rekindling interest in school lunch. Such restrictions are possible now that BHHS has become a after several occurred at the school.

“We will see how the new rule of nobody in ninth through 11th [grades] can leave before 1:45 works next semester, and then we can assess how this bell schedule and policy change is working,” Board Vice President Brian Goldberg told Patch. “This is a step in the right direction.”

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