Just when it seems that everything that can change at RB has changed, now even the bell schedule will be changing. This change stemmed originally from concerns within the Science Department that morning and afternoon announcements were taking too long and wasting essential class time.
Chemistry teacher Michael Melquist was concerned about the length of the announcements. He believed that the announcements cut into instructional time and possibly test time. Melquist first decided to start recording how long the announcements took each day for a period of three weeks. With the help from Science Teacher Dave Monti, a chart was created and presented during a faculty meeting on October 2nd. What was found was that, during that three week period, first hour lost a total of 66.5 minutes of time to announcements while seventh hour lost 59 minutes to announcements.
Altogether, lost instructional time totaled 125.5 minutes, a little under two and a half full class periods over a three week span.
“The solution was to have less announcements.”
-Chemistry teacher Michael Melquist
Monti said, “Class time is sacred.”
After the information was presented to the administration and faculty, the administration decided to change the school’s bell schedule. However, instead of having fewer announcements, the administration decided to make first period three minutes longer and seventh period two minutes longer to accommodate the announcements.
Melquist was not pleased. “The solution was to have less announcements,” he said.
The new schedule, which will go into effect at the start of the new semester, will look as follows:
The administration has also noted that it will make every effort to avoid beginning announcements at the end of the day before 3:03 p.m. to avoid losing instructional time if announcements end early.
