The bells are again ringing after their brief silence this morning, having left students and teachers without a reliable way of judging when to start and end class.

As one teacher joked, Palo Alto High School just won its first “no-bell” prize.

The bells had been changed over the five-day weekend and the problem was not resolved until after first period, second period and brunch.

“For some reason they [the bells] were reset over the holiday and you don’t know until you don’t hear it,” Assistant Principal Jerry Berkson said. “I got a phone call from [social studies teacher] Mr. [Eric] Bloom. He said they weren’t going off so I fixed it … right after brunch.”

Berkson commented that teachers should be understanding toward their students who arrived late to class while the bells were malfunctioning.

“I would hope teachers knowing that the bells weren’t going off would not give them a tardy for that,” Berkson said. “If a student has a problem they can come see me and we can work it out.”

Berkson admitted that the incident might not be isolated.

“It could [happen again] because you don’t know when they [the bells] are not going to go off,” Berkson said.

The bells were back up and running for the remainder of the day. The fire alarm was working as usual, as it went off during seventh period.