NPHS Rotating Drop Bell Schedule

We are very excited to announce to our students and parents/guardians that New Providence High School will implement a Rotating Drop Bell Schedule for the 2018-2019 school year! Last evening, I gave a full presentation on the Rotating Drop Bell Schedule to the Board of Education and they were all in consensus to move forward with implementation for September of 2018.

A Rotating Drop Bell Schedule provides students with six classes a day, which will result in longer instructional periods allowing teachers and students to engage in active learning as well as greater depth of knowledge in subject areas. In addition, having fewer (six) classes per day will decrease transition time and allow students to focus, which will potentially help to relieve student stress. Each day on a Rotating Drop Bell Schedule, the periods will rotate allowing for variation in a student’s school day.

On a Rotating Drop Bell Schedule, a student’s schedule for the school year will be comprised of eight courses, in addition to lunch. On our current bell schedule, a student has seven courses in addition to lunch, hence our eight period day. There is tremendous value in implementing a Rotating Drop Bell Schedule for students, as they will add a course to the academic school year, allowing them to fulfill their graduation requirements faster so that they can take advantage of the additional courses New Providence High School has to offer.

With the Rotating Drop Bell Schedule, we will have a professional period of twenty minutes where students are able to visit with teachers for extra help, meet with co-curricular advisors, visit offices in the school building such as guidance where they may need to fulfill a request, or visit the media center to complete schoolwork. Through our pilot program, our teachers and students found great value during this period of time. Lunch for all students will be a total of thirty minutes. On our Rotating Drop Bell Schedule, freshman and sophomore students will be scheduled for a lunch period, while all junior and senior students will have open lunch.

Shortly, the High School administration will have class meetings to discuss the details of the Rotating Drop Bell Schedule with students. I thank all of our students and parents for your support and valuable feedback throughout our process.

Respectfully,

Lauren Zirpoli

Principal