Eastern Regional High School explores new rotating bell schedule

In an effort to increase instructional time and limit classroom disruptions at Eastern Regional High School, officials with the district are exploring the creation of a new “rotating bell schedule” which would allow students to take up to eight classes without the use of a zero mod period before the start of the regular school day.

At the Oct. 21 meeting of the Eastern Camden County Regional School District Board of Education, director of curriculum, instruction and professional development Robert Cloutier presented an outline of what the new schedule could look like.

The schedule would operate on the principle of a four-day cycle, with each day in that cycle broken up into eight segments, with classes lasting about 54 minutes in length.

Although students could be enrolled in eight classes in total, students would only meet with six classes per day; depending on which day it happens to be within the four-day rotating cycle.

For example, on day one of the cycle, students would meet with classes one, two and three, and classes five, six and seven. Classes four and eight would be dropped that day.

On day two of the cycle, students would meet with classes two, three and four, and then meet with classes six, seven and eight. Classes one and five would be dropped that day.

On day three of the cycle, students would meeting classes one, three and four and then meet with classes five, seven and eight. Classes two and six would be dropped that day.

On day four of the cycle, students would meet with classes one, two and four, and then meet with classes five, six and eight. Classes three and seven would be dropped that day.

After the four-day cycle was complete, it would then start again with the day one schedule. Students would see the same teacher and same class three times within the cycle.

“By having only six meetings per day, longer in length, we’re able to actually increase the overall instruction time for the school day,” Cloutier said.

The proposed schedule would apply to sophomore, junior and senior classes, with freshman classes in a transitions schedule where they could only take up to seven classes and would be given a study hall period.

The other major change with the new bell schedule would come with lunch, as instead of there being the current four lunch periods, all students lunch periods would fall within one 60-minute block of time in the middle of the day.

Depending on what classes students chose to take, they could either use the full 60 minutes for lunch, use a portion of that time for a science lab, take a study hall, participate in an enrichment program and more.

To accommodate so many additional students eating lunch at the same time, the school would be opening the number of designated, supervised areas where students would be eating.

In addition to using the school’s two cafeterias, Cloutier said students could have their lunch in the main foyer, the learning center, the bleachers of gyms one and four, or several other places that the district has in mind.

Kiosks would also be set up through building where students could buy food.

“They’re not in the hallways and they’re not where the classes are, because we still have science class labs running at that time,” Cloutier noted.

In speaking with other districts using similar schedules, Cloutier said the schedule, especially the lunch system, improves the culture of the buildings and the trust and responsibility of students.

“They really take pride in that time and issues like cleaning up after themselves became less of an issue because a real consequence can be put in place immediately with lunch detentions where students were denied the privilege of eating lunch with their friends,” Cloutier said.

Cloutier said the schedule would also have other benefits, such as allowing the school to expand labs to all honors level science classes, including those in ninth and 10th grade, letting students meet with counselors without having to be pulled from a class, as well as providing time for programs such as spirit weeks and additional initiatives.

Students who need additional educational help could also get assistance during the day instead of having to stay after school.

Cloutier said officials have visited other, high performing schools in the state where such a schedule is in place, and other high achieving schools in the area such as Cherry Hill, Lenape and Cherokee also have something similar.

“It’s not something brand new, it’s something other districts have used and it’s something that would offer our students lots of opportunities, and especially we would be able to give our students better individualized choices,” Cloutier said. “They can take more classes and specialize in more areas.”

Cloutier said the district would continue to develop the schedule and take input from staff, parents and students before presenting something to the board for approval in December.