Due to recent changes, the printed edition of the 2017-18 bell schedule was incorrect. The Newtonian staff regrets this error. This online schedule is accurate.

NHS 2017-2018 Bell Schedule

Next year, students will be unable to wake up at 7:50 a.m. and still make it to school on time. Principal Lisa Moore has made adjustments in the school day schedule for next year, which will include an earlier start time and an early release day once each week. She believes the new schedule will better fit the needs of students and staff.

“We need a new bell schedule because we need to be within our minutes required for all students. There have been multiple requests from different departments to move the start time to 8:00 a.m. because the area schools start at that time and we have several area wide students in our CTE programs,” Moore said.

However, another significant change to the 2017-18 schedule is being introduced.

“Students would be released on Wednesdays at 2:20 p.m. in order to get people on a similar schedule. This will hopefully decrease our loss of instructional time because we know we have student athletes and teachers who coach leave early to go to athletic events. For transportation, the bus would pick up all students that ride the bus after school. The bus driver would then take all of the students home, they would not transload at the middle school,” Moore said.

An earlier start time means an earlier end time, which Moore believes could prove to be beneficial for many busy students and athletes.

“There are also requests that the school day is not extended so long into the afternoon so practices can begin and not be extended so long into the evenings. Plus, we know that many of our students miss a considerable amount of time in the afternoons for games,” Moore said.

An additional change will be made to help students finish and get help with homework during the school day.

“We’ll move seventh period so that we have seventh period and seminar every single day. There are several classes that would like to be on that seventh period so that they can meet with their students every day, whether those are ELL classes or freshman math or English classes,” Moore said.

Despite having seminar every day, Moore said study hall will still be an option.

“We have a lot of students taking AP classes and honors classes, so study hall would be really nice for them to still be able to do school work. I would bet that many AP or honors students are also involved in multiple activities, whether that is debate, music, athletics or scholars bowl, so they spend a lot of time in practices and competition,” Moore said.

Certain kinks remain in the new schedule that staff will continue to work out.

“This schedule is not set in stone…Students would be released on Wednesdays at 2:20 p.m. and we’re looking at what kind of supervision we could offer them. They could stay in the commons and work on homework because obviously some students will have to stay after school for practices,” Moore said.

Moore said she looks forward to seeing the impact of the changes in the schedule next year as she takes on the role of permanent principal. She hopes these changes will be beneficial to all.