The Palo Alto High School administration is forming a new Bell Schedule Review Committee, which will consider changing the current bell schedule for the 2017-18 school year.

According to Principal Kim Diorio, the administration created this committee to deal with the stress that goes along with C-days.

“On C-days there is no consistency,” Diorio said. “There is still this issue of test stacking and homework load and students say that block days are better because at least on a block day you only have a few classes.”

According to Diorio, the committee will consist of parents, students and teachers from different backgrounds in order to create a balanced decision-making process. In the coming days, Diorio will send out an email detailing the application process to be on the committee.

“The email will have a quick application about the committee,” Diorio said. “We want to have students on the committee, about five to six parents, a staff member representing each department and maybe someone from the counseling department and one administrator so it will be fairly balanced. I also want a facilitator who will be neutral to help the process.”

The idea for such a committee came about two years ago as a response to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Visiting Committee’s recommendation to reevaluate the C-day bell schedule.

“We [Paly Admin] were doing a lot of surveys and focus groups and hearing from students about C-days and realizing that some things don’t work for kids,” Diorio said. 

Paly students are encouraged to fill out an application and apply to be a part of the committee. The application is due by Oct. 31 and the committee will be selected by Nov. 4.

“We will choose applicants who can commit to dates and times,” Diorio said. “We want to make sure to represent different types of students to have a good cross representation.”