For many Calabasas High School students, navigating the weekly bell schedule can be confusing, especially for freshman, transfer students, and even sophomores, since the schedule has changed a couple of times over the past four years depending on when students started. To simplify the week, the school is relabeling class periods to follow a sequential order, while keeping the start and end time the same. Principal Wutkee explained that the update is a renumbering of periods rather than a structural change.
“It’s actually not really a change to the bell schedule. None of the bells are gonna ring at a different time. It’s just being rebranded,” said Principal Wutkee.
“I’m a junior and I honestly never saw the reason for doing 1, 3, 5, 2, 4, 6, so I am excited for this renumbering!” said CHS junior Shaya Bakhshi.
Previously, Mondays followed a “jumping” pattern, with periods 1,3, 5 and then 2, 4, 6, which often caused confusion for students and families. The new system will allow students to go straight from periods one through six, creating a more logical flow. This same concept applies to Tuesday through Fridays as well. Tuesdays and Thursdays will be 1, 2, 3, and then Wednesdays and Thursdays will be 4, 5, 6.
“[The previous bell schedule] caused confusion for families and it just caused confusion in general,” said Principal Wutkee.
The renumbering will also help new students, including those coming from other districts or international programs, quickly understand the schedule and focus on learning rather than figuring out which class comes next.
“[The renumbering] will help students who are on permit make that transition more easily as well. Hopefully, this will also support our freshmen and our transfer students that come in here and are just trying to assimilate faster,” said Principal Wutkee.
“In my old school, the schedule was a lot different than the block schedule we have here and changing it to 1, 2, 3 and 4, 5, 6 would make it much easier to adapt,” said CHS sophomore Lori Luo.
With multiple bell schedule changes over the past few years, students sometimes struggle to know which class comes next. This can lead to confusion, stress, and questions for staff throughout the day. Simplifying the period numbers is intended to give students a clear guide to the school day, so they can focus on learning instead of tracking the schedule.
“I really do hope it helps eliminate a lot of confusion and makes it one less thing for students to worry about,” said Principal Wutkee.
