BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. We’ve been upgraded.
Students and teachers alike were surprised Monday morning when the five-minute warning bell sounded less like a bell and more like an office tone, and even more so when, at 7:29, came a distinctly different bell with a trilling sound. The whole system, including the bells, PA system, and classroom clocks, has been revamped overnight.
“The county just showed up and said they were putting in the new system,” said Principal Paul Wardinski.
The main distinction is the different tones. The old bell system only had one sound, which could cause confusion between warning bells, tardy bells, lunch bells, and the seemingly-pointless bell between first period and Spartan Time. Now, the school can choose to make different tones for different bells, such as the newly implemented one-minute-warning bell. It gives to those still loitering after the five-minute-bell, another warning to quickly get to class.
The school also plans to create different tones to start B lunch and C lunch. Currently, with bells ringing almost every five minutes during fifth and sixth period, it is very confusing for people who haven’t memorized the schedule to figure out when they are to go to lunch. Once the new change is put into place, they must only listen to the unique sound that starts their lunch. However, some think it will only make things worse.
“In all, it sounds like a good idea, but when you put it into practice, all the different sounds are going to throw people off,” said senior Briana Beale.
Another major change is that a classroom or section of the school can be shut off from the system. This will prove most useful during the PSAT, SOLs, or AP tests, when PA announcements and bells would be the most disruptive. Similarly, the office can now call down to specific rooms by PA, so a summon to the office no longer needs to be broadcast to the entire school or brought by student runners to the classroom.
Many students complain that the new bells are confusing because they are not consistent, but hopefully soon they will become more regular. The main complaint, however, is not the fact that there are more bells, but the headache-inducing way they sound.
“It’s ear-piercing and it’s way too long on the ears,” said senior Ben Laubacher.
The school’s consensus: the main bell resembles a heart monitor flat lining in a hospital, while the warning bell sounds like either Chewbacca from “Star Wars” or an alien invasion. Neither makes any attempt at sounding like a bell.
“The old bells were comfortable, ‘high-school-y’ sounds. The new ones sound like an obnoxious office building is invading West Springfield,” said junior Sean Garrison.
