In recent years, Clover Hill has had several alterations to its bell schedule, and the 2023-2024 bell schedule is no different. The new bell schedule shortens lunch times and removes Cavalier Morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This will be followed up until after spring break, where Cavalier Morning will be phased out for the remainder of the year.
While newcomers to the school may find it easy to adjust, returning students, such as senior Zain Abed, are struggling to keep up with the changes.
“I think the reduction of two minutes is a little ridiculous,” Abed said. “[Faculty is] going to cut down on our free time during the day by two minutes, I think that is kind of messed up.”
The reduction in lunch time has resulted in lunch periods with irregular start and end times.
“I just feel like I do not know the schedule anymore,” Abed said. “The lunch times are these really weird and specific times like 12:34.”
Faculty are also being affected by the new schedule; English teacher William Kaskay is worried about the effect that a lack of a dedicated study hall will have on his students.
“I do not see a lot of [first block] students because of the mess with buses,” Kaskay said. “I was excited to implement a Cav Morning system for my own classroom where I would be working with those students, and I will not be able to do that [now].”
These changes, however, are not without purpose. Assistant principal Christopher Szybisty worked over the summer to implement the changes in order to abide by Virginia law.
“[Students need] 140 clock hours of instruction in every one of their classes to earn credit,” Szybisty said. “[Principal John Phillips] and I looked at the numbers, and there were a couple of areas where we were concerned about whether or not we were hitting those.”
This is not a challenge unique to Clover Hill. Schools all throughout Virginia are having to work with these same requirements.
“It is something that the principals in Chesterfield have been talking about,” Szybisty said. “We are focused as a county, since we have these flex periods, on how we can make them count for us and still meet the needs of our students.”
Szybisty believes that students will be quick to adapt to the changes to the bell schedule.
“I am very confident that we will get into a rhythm,” Szybisty said. “We have great teachers here, we have great kids here. I feel confident in our plan that we have, even with some of the challenges that are there, it is a good plan.”
