Principal Phil Winston announced that Paly will keep the pilot bell schedule it adopted this year, after gathering feedback on the subject.

– Grant Raffel

The Palo Alto High School bell schedule from the 2010-11 school year will be retained for 2011-12, but slightly altered from this year’s pilot schedule, according to Principal Phil Winston.

The main change is essentially flipping Tuesday’s and Thursday’s schedules.  Tutorial will be moved to Tuesday and Advisory will be moved to Thursday, although next year Advisory will be at the end of the day instead of between second and fourth periods.

“Together these refinements allow for greater consistency in the schedule and for lunch at the same time on all block days,” Winston said.

Winston also noted that switching Advisory to the end of the day will allow students who do not have advisory that day to meet with teachers or simply go home.

“I am a big believer that students will make the right choices [with their time],” Winston said.

The administration collected data from more than 2,300 members of the Palo Alto High School community through surveys, focus groups and other meetings, according to Winston.  

“As a result of analyzing the data, the Education Council came to consensus regarding [these] refinements in the schedule,” Winston said.

Winston indicated that a few other minor changes will be made, among them more closely monitoring students during Tutorial who have lower grades.

Another change is starting the second semester with three seven-period days in a row.

“This refinement will facilitate better connections with our students earlier in the semester,” Winston said.

He added that, as a continuous effort over the coming years, the administration will look at the master schedule in an effort to limit cases in which students would have four core classes in one block day.