SAMARA OSHIRO
STAFF WRITER
After much deliberation, the Moanalua High School Administration has adjusted the school bell schedule for the 2018-2019 school year. The new schedule outline, originally formatted in 2014, was voted on by school faculty and now meets the state’s standard requirements of 1,285 instructional minutes in class per school year.
“What initiated the implementation of the new bell schedule was, they drew from the 2014 bell schedule and tweaked it because the legislature changed some of the language in its law, so they can count some minutes they previously couldn’t count as class minutes,” Principal Robin Martin said.
There has not been a bell schedule change in about four years, but due to the change in law and school schedule, students and staff can now say goodbye to ending at 3:00, and hello to ending at 1:50 on some days.
It took four years to initiate the new schedule, but Ms. Martin explained that the schedule was quickly put into effect for this school year, due to the fact that the proposal just needed the faculty’s vote and the input of the school community council.
MoHS administration implemented this new schedule, anticipating that many students would adjust to it quickly and many students had very positive feedback.
After attending Moanalua for just about two years, Senior Jada Pierre compared the schedule from the previous years to the updated bell schedule. “The new bell schedule is not that bad. I like it since it is shorter and easy to adjust to from the past one,” Pierre said.
Junior Megan Kasparek also shared positive feedback on the new schedule with its shortened school days. “The new bell schedule allows me to have more time out of school, I’m for it!” Kasparek said. As current Sophomore Hannah Oshiro enters her second year here at Moanalua, she shared a similar opinion to Kasparek on to this saying, “Compared to my first year, the new bell schedule has shorter days and I love it.”
As of now, MoHS Administration expects to keep the shortened bell schedule in order to abide by the state’s requirements and is appreciative that students are quickly adjusting to the change.