Students, teachers frustrated over new bell schedule decision

PHOTO: Students and staff raise objections to proposed 2022-2023 bell schedule for Davis High.

By Colette Quaas & Sophia Young,

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff-

A recent controversial decision to drastically change the bell schedule for the 2022-2023 school year was still the dominant topic of discussion at the Davis Joint Unified School District school board meeting on Jan. 6, with teachers and students speaking out against the new schedule.

Due to the passage of California Senate Bill 328, which mandates that school starts no earlier than 8:30 a.m., DJUSD had to decide on a new bell schedule. To find the best option for the community, the school board had sent out a survey to the parents, teachers and students at Davis High. The survey resulted in an overwhelming amount of votes in favor of schedule one, the closest option to the current schedule. 

However, after discussion, the board ultimately decided on schedule two, a less popular option. This schedule shortens block periods from 90 minutes to 70 minutes, adds a second period extended time and includes three block days throughout the week. 

School board student representative and senior Ryan Sahar spoke at the board meeting. He brought attention to the disadvantages of having such an extreme schedule change.

“Some seniors take five classes so they can go to work or other extracurriculars after school. In general, this (the new schedule) will affect many extracurriculars and put more stress on them, which is the opposite of what we want. How will a schedule where students with five periods get out at 11:38 a.m. one day and 3:30 p.m. the next day, which is an extreme inconvenience for most, affect their responsibilities outside of school?” Sahar said at the meeting. 

Physics teacher Jean-Paul Whittall, a member of the scheduling committee, came to the school board meeting to give his input, asking the board to reconsider the schedule for the upcoming year. Whittall spoke of frustrations surrounding the fact that results of the survey conducted months prior were not being represented in the decision agreed upon by the board.

“What came to be known as schedule one, an alteration of our current schedule, that was only included at the behest of teachers on the scheduling committee came to be the most approved proposal by all of the polled parties, not only selected by the majority but by a wide margin. Both teachers who are expected to implement the schedule, parents that are represented and students who will have to actually attend school all approved of it and the committee approved of it by a ⅔ majority,” Whittall said. 

Science teacher David Van Muyden was also in attendance at the meeting in support of his colleagues. 

“I was upset that they (the board) didn’t listen to the students’, parents’ and the teachers’ priorities. I was also upset about how they made the survey; we had to choose a second choice and third choice, but we only wanted one choice,” Van Muyden said.

“It’s kind of frustrating, just seeing them make their own decisions without listening to input from students. Definitely what we voted on has not been represented,” junior Rohan Nepomuceno said.

Concern about inconsistent school end times is a major consideration for many students. 

“If you’re taking five periods, you’re doing that to not have to stay at school until 3:30, but with this you still have to do that on Tuesdays, but then you get out normally-ish on the other days. It just causes really bad scheduling reasons for everybody,” junior Jianna Ongsioco said.

Confusion has also stemmed around the 40 minute extended second period that has been implemented into the new schedule. It includes a new extended block time on Wednesdays for students to go where they need to for help for their classes or connect with their peers and teachers. 

“I know that students have been asking for extra time to do their work in between classes, but I just don’t think that’s the way to go about it. I feel like keeping students in that extended period of time really just does nothing, when it could be put toward opportunities with more freedom,” junior Rohan Nepomuceno said. “Maybe like a larger lunch, or even just having school end earlier or start later… I think that would be better.”

Science teacher Sydney Lundy, a member of the scheduling committee, brought her concern about the new extended secound period time.

“My more grave concern regards the extended time that has been added to next year’s schedule. I cannot explain how this time will be used as we have not been given any clarification on its use and implementation. I can however tell you that under the current culture at Davis High, tell you that this will at its core be optional,” Lundy said at the meeting. 

“The idea is there are so many things that happen in the life of a student, socially, emotionally, academically and you just need a little extra help sometimes or just a break or time to connect with your group or a project or whatever it might be. The extended time purpose is that we as adults will be able to get you to the place you need to be to get the support you need.” Interim Superintendent Matt Best said.

After hearing criticisms of the decided schedule, board member Lea Darrah suggested the secondary schedule (2-block day) be brought back into discussion. However, the board did not second Darrah’s motion.

“I’m disappointed about the board’s decision, as the majority of students and teachers have been very vocal and concerned about schedule two. This, in my eyes, devalues representation of the people living in this community,” Sahar said.

Best and Tom Adams, president of the board, spent the time to explain why they chose the schedule they did. 

“One of the goals we heard from the students and the community was to try not to end school later than 3:30. Some students have jobs after school, after-school programs, clubs. We know there are students responsible for taking care of their elementary school-aged siblings. So the later you go in the school day, the more time you put in between those activities,” Best said.

Best also cites the benefits of having more block periods throughout the week.

“Block periods allow teachers to do a wider variety of activities. When you sit in a 52 minute period it is fast, you are in and out of the classroom like that. We also heard that 90 minutes is a long time to be zeroed in on what’s happening in the classroom so we thought maybe a 70 minute period was a better time for students’ attention,” Best said. 

Although the board has decided to follow schedule two, they still plan to think about how it will be implemented and change some things if necessary. The only thing that was set in stone was the start and end times. 

The DJUSD school board plans to have more conversations about their choice and is open to answer questions that come up at the Jan. 20 school board meeting. 

Junior Elliot DeJong (who is a section editor for the BlueDevilHUB) started a petition in hopes of convincing the board to reconsider their decision. 

DeJong wrote and published the petition in class on the Thursday of the board meeting after seeing the schedule and hearing many classmates’ dislike for it.

“I think 19 hours later, we had hit 500 signatures and 2500 people had seen the page,” DeJong said. 

However, the petition had been made only hours before the meeting and therefore had only about 41 signatures at the time that DeJong emailed them the petition.

“I do feel that since the petition had been started so soon before that, they didn’t really understand the full picture from the data we had given them,” DeJong said.

The petition now has over 1,000 signatures. The student body of DHS amounts to around 2,000 people.

DeJong plans to bring the petition to the next scheduled board meeting on Jan. 20.